Hinata's Story: Underneath Your Clothes
Chapter 6: Be Careful What You Ask For
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1 and don't ask anyone to pay to read this story; you might end up locked in a closet.
Naruto was very subdued on the way back; so subdued in fact, that it was Sakura that broke the silence first.
"So that was the Kyuubi that made your face change like that?" Sakura asked; her curiosity getting the better of her.
"And your eyes," Hinata mumbled so silently that Naruto might not have heard her.
His voice stuck in his throat, Naruto looked down at the princess he carried in his arms. Gamamonzo had been dispatched back to his own dimension when Sakura had hit him, so Naruto was left carrying Keiko. Their trip through the tree tops had yet to wake her. Part of Naruto wanted the sleeping princess to wake so that he would have an excuse not to answer. The other part was scared she already had.
Looking down, Naruto saw that the bell was not on his side this time. Naruto searched the young princess's face thoroughly for any sign that she might be faking before replying hesitantly and quietly in the affirmative.
"But how?" Sakura asked perplexed.
"The seal allows the kyuubi's chakra to leak in to my body," Naruto said quietly.
"What?" Sakura exclaimed. "Why?" Sakura's shock was a stark contrast to Hinata's silent, concerned expression.
Naruto examined the princess in his arms silently for a moment before answering hesitantly, "Ero-Senin says the Fourth did it to protect me."
"But you don't think so," Sakura said thoughtfully.
"No," was Naruto's somber reply.
"Then why?" Hinata asked hesitantly, concern evident in her voice and on her face as she finally rejoined the conversation.
Again Naruto's eyes turned to Keiko as if to avoid the inevitable. "I think it's to keep me from being destroyed."
"What?" Hinata and Sakura's response to Naruto's nearly silent declaration seemed deafening in contrast.
This time all eyes followed Naruto's gaze to the lady in his arms to see if the sudden noise had woken her. It had not. No longer able to delay the inevitable Naruto spoke. "The Kyuubi is incredibly powerful. More than you can imagine." Naruto began to speak more loudly now. "Some times when I'm using its chakra, I feel like there's this burning waterfall running through my body and there's a whole huge lake trying to push itself through me and if it weren't for the seal I would explode." The last of Naruto's words came out in a rush.
"Well of course the Kyuubi's strong," Sakura replied. "It was more powerful than all of Konoha. No single person's body is going to be able to handle all of its power! It took the strongest hokage ever to…to do what he did."
"Yah," Naruto said through clenched teeth. The sleeping girl in his arms was a constant reminder of his need to stay quiet. "He had the Shinigami /Death-God: Demon similar to the Grim Reaper in Japanese Mythology/ right there, but instead of sealing the kyuubi in himself like the third did to Orochimaru's arms, he sealed it in a helpless boy who had already lost his parents; who didn't ask to be some kind of hero and definitely didn't ask to be the village scapegoat!" Naruto hissed out.
"Shinigami?" Sakura asked, the rest of what Naruto said going over her head.
"The technique he used calls on a Shinigami to make the seal, but to do it you have to give up your life to the Shinigami." Naruto's voice wavered. Despite how angry Naruto could be about the Kyuubi at times, he couldn't feel anything but respect for a man who gave up his life to protect those he loved. Some how he couldn't believe that a man that could do that could have done anything to intentionally hurt him if he could help it.
"Ano…Maybe he wanted to make sure he left behind someone who would be strong enough to protect everyone when he was gone." Somehow Hinata's hesitant voice seemed to overpower her teammates' louder voices.
"And use me as a weapon like Gara's father tried to do to him?" Naruto growled.
It was the first time Naruto had ever spoken sharply to the young Hyuuga heiress. She stopped moving as her heart shattered and fell in pieces all around her. She didn't even realize she had started to cry until she heard herself sniffling.
The sound shocked Naruto out of his rant. He had made plenty of girls mad at him before. In fact sometimes it seemed that the mere sight of him was enough to make most girls mad at him. But he had never made a girl cry before and now that he had, it gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Covering the entire distance back to his sobbing teammate in one giant leap, Naruto landed with a thud. Naruto tried to reach out and place his hand on Hinata's shoulder and say something comforting to the crying girl, but the woman in his arms made that difficult. After fumbling with both his words and the princess for a few moments he finally set her down.
"Hinata," Naruto called his teammate's name hesitantly as he knelt down in front of her. Sitting on his knees he was now at eye level with Hinata who was sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees in front of her. "Please don't cry because of me," Naruto pleaded. The awkward silence stretched as he searched for the words to describe what he felt. "It's just that most people that know about…about the Kyuubi already hate me and if they saw that…. I'm sorry…. It's just that some times I'm scared that now that you two know about it that….you'll hate me too."
Hinata slowly lifted her head to look at Naruto for the first time since she had started crying. Tears were knocked off her face as the branch they were on quivered from the force of Sakura's landing on it. "How could I hate you? I…"
Whether Hinata would have had the courage to tell Naruto how she felt at that moment will never be known. Before she could even realize what she was saying she was interrupted by her pink haired teammate's loud voice. "She's right, why would we hate someone for saving our lives!" Sakura yelled just before she punched Naruto in the head hard enough to send renewed shivers through the branch.
Naruto had long since forbidden himself to ever cry. Despite this he found himself fighting back tears. Fortunately for him before he could show up Hinata, he was saved by the bell. Or in this case the loud shrill scream of a princess who had just been awakened by Sakura's yelling.
Now for a trained ninja waking up in a tree is as little concern as walking on or jumping between them. Keiko however had never climbed any where near this high up a tree. Once aware of her situation she promptly screamed and began to fall.
Sakura dove toward the princess. Naruto dove for the ground. Sakura felt the princesses silky hand slip through her own as she got to her too late. Naruto managed to catch the falling maiden in midair. With a twist that was a simple maneuver for even an academy student, Naruto landed on his feet holding the limp princess who upon seeing her predicament had apparently decided she was better off unconscious.
Unfortunately with the princess back in the land of nod there wasn't anything left to distract everyone from the awkwardness of their situation when Naruto returned to the branch they had all been sharing. Hinata was no longer crying, but had curled back up into a ball looking slightly crestfallen. Naruto didn't know what to say and he didn't dare put the princess back down again until they were on the ground. Fortunately Sakura came to the rescue. "Well I've always wondered where you get that freakish stamina you have. It's because of the Kyuubi isn't it?"
Naruto flinched at the sound of the demon's name coming from his teammate's lips. He didn't want her to hate him, because of the demon inside him, but he didn't want her or everyone else to think that his only strength was the Kyuubi and he was useless with out it.
"Yes and no," came the much older voice that those who didn't know its owner might have called wizened. "You see the seal that holds the Kyuubi is maintained by Naruto's chakra," Jiraiya explained as he annealed himself to the trunk of the tree his team was on. "So it's like he's been exercising his chakra nonstop from the day he was born."
"So not only does he have tons of chakra just pouring into him he's got a seal that's been strengthening him since he was a baby?" Sakura asked.
Sakura didn't see Naruto's crestfallen look, but Hinata did. "But Naruto's trained harder than anyone ever since we were in the academy," Hinata supplied. She'd after all watched him and didn't want people to think that the man she admired didn't earn his incredible strength.
Sakura however wasn't convinced. She remembered Naruto from the academy too! "If he practiced so hard then why didn't he do better in the academy?" Her voice drew Naruto's attention away from gaping at Hinata back to his other teammate. He was about to deny Sakura's insinuation, but he didn't get the chance to voice his denial before his Sensei spoke up.
"Yes, Naruto worked very hard." Jiraiya cut in. "And yes the Kyuubi's chakra does leak into his body, but not that much. It took him nearly a month of constant training to learn to harness the demons chakra and pull it out of the seal," Jiraiya explained.
"You threw me off a cliff!" Naruto yelled at the old man.
Sakura's shocked comment was drowned out by Hinata's gasp.
"That's beside the point," Jiraiya said. "The point is that even in the academy you trained harder than anyone I've ever met."
"But then why wasn't he the best in the class?" Sakura asked perplexed. It was a tenant of her world that hard work made people better. She had always assumed that Naruto just goofed off when he was out of school just like he did in class and that was why his performance was so bad.
"I'm getting to that. You see, the techniques taught in the academy are the ones that are not only the easiest, but the ones that use the least chakra. Those types of jutsus just aren't suited to Naruto." Jiraiya explained as if it were obvious.
"Not suited?" Sakura asked confused, "but why?"
"Naruto, can you do the Bunshin no Jutsu /Replication Technique?" Jiraiya called out to the now sulking Naruto
"Yes," he replied defensively.
"Really?" Jiraiya asked.
"Well… sometimes," Naruto admitted grudgingly.
"Only sometimes?" Sakura asked surprised. She had been sure that if he could perform the much more advanced Kage-Bunshin /Shadow Clone/ he'd be able to perform Bunshin no Jutsu with ease.
"I can't use that little chakra" Naruto said testily. "Every time I do, too much of the Kyuubi's chakra gets in the technique and messes it up." Naruto finished in a mumble
"I didn't know…" Sakura said shocked and pityingly
"Well having this monster sealed inside my stomach isn't some kind of great gift the Fourth gave me that automatically turns me into a super-ninja. It messes me up more than anything else!" Upset Naruto turned on his heal and took off back toward Fire Capital leaving his team behind for a moment before they took off to follow him.
"Well, if we don't think he did it to give you the …. to give you power, then he must have done it because he had to," Sakura said as she finally caught up to her distraught teammate.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked while looking at Sakura curiously, his expression mirrored on Hinata's expectant face.
"Well if he didn't trap it in you to give you power, he must have been scared that it would get loose if he sealed it in himself." Sakura explained as if it was the only logical explanation.
"That sounds like the Fourth," Jiraiya mused.
"Huh?" Everyone but the sleeping princess perked up at that statement.
Jiraiya looked at his charges thoughtfully, making eye contact with each one before proceeding with his explanation. "The Fourth was very protective of the people he cared about. He spared no effort when it came to keeping people safe. I saw him work through sleepless nights and risk his life against insane odds if there was the slightest chance that the people he protected could come to harm."
"Are you saying that the Fourth was paranoid and he didn't have to stick this seal on me?" Naruto asked angrily.
"No, Naruto, the Fourth wasn't paranoid," Jiraiya explained. "He just couldn't stand the thought of the people he cared about getting hurt, so he did everything in his power to prevent it. A feeling I think you understand, Naruto."
"Yah, I understand it." Naruto sighed.
"Sealing something in the freshly cut umbilical chord of a child is one of the strongest sealing techniques there is," Jiraiya explained. "If the Fourth had even the slightest doubt that he could hold the Kyuubi this is what he would have done."
"But what's so great about some brat's belly button?" Naruto asked incredulously.
"I'm not completely sure, there are many theories as to why it's that way," Jiraiya said unapologetically.
But before Naruto could yell at his sensei Hinata's voice broke in. "Ano, a person's chakra circulatory system is always changing, especially as a person's body grows and becomes stronger. Your chakra paths could adapt to and grow around the seal making it stronger, especially with a seal like this one that's held by your own chakra. So a baby is the logical choice, since it would have the longest to live it would have the best chance of making the seal strong enough to keep the monster trapped even after it died." Hinata's voice explained hesitantly. "It's even possible that the K…k…kyuubi's chakra didn't used to leak into you, but that your chakra system grew into the gaps in the seal to steal its chakra."
Naruto turned away from his teammates as he pondered this line of reasoning. It made sense and he knew that it had to be the real reason the Fourth had done it. Besides, he actually liked the idea that his body might be stealing the kyuubi's chakra. He grinned to himself as he thought about it, but his teammates' inability to so much as say the Kyuubi's name in front on him wasn't lost on him either. He spent the rest of the trip back to the palace in silence brooding over what his friends had to be thinking about him.
Hanabi wore a wide grin as her cousin led her to the newly constructed training hall where her father was waiting for her. She was quite proud of herself for having the self control to walk calmly toward the building. She had seen it being built, but had no idea what it would look like inside because after the second day the walls had gone up and along with them had been seals to prevent spying on it's insides. The training halls all had them as did several other rooms in the compound. It would not do to have the secrets of the Hyuuga clan be stolen by enemies or allies.
Her training sessions with her cousin Neji had been strenuous. Hanabi had never been so worn out, but inside she was pleased that her father was finally recognizing the full extent of her strength. She intended to prove to everyone that she was stronger than her sister and that talent and hard work would win over size and age. She would finally get out from under her sister's shadow!
The young Hyuuga had fire in her eyes as she approached the recently constructed building. Hanabi had never seen a building of its size build so fast. It had only been five days since it was started and though it lacked some of the finishing touches her father deemed it ready for her to train in. She stepped onto the porch that was still being sanded in preparation for the entire structure to be treated and finished. Neji opened the door for her and she walked in leaving her sandals outside. Instead of following her Neji simply closed the door to be on his way. Even he was not allowed inside to see the training his youngest cousin was receiving.
The inside of the building did not show any sign of needing to be completed as the outside had. The wood on the floor was glossy finished and smooth on her feet. She took a few steps forward and stepped off the wooden ledge that surrounded the room and down the flagstone steps to so she stood right in front of the massive pool of water that was the center of the training hall. She had been about to shout in outrage, how was she going to train in a bath, but was stopped by her own shock. Standing on the polished flagstone floor surrounding the pool she stared silently at her father, who was standing on the water at the center of the pool.
Hiashi stood still, repressing a grin, as he looked at the emotions playing across his daughter's face. For a moment the only sound was the muted sounds of the workers outside finishing the exterior of the building. He decided to speak when he saw his Hanabi's face turn thoughtful. "Haven't you figured out what your next task is?" Hiashi was amused.
"Walking on water," Hanabi replied simply.
"Then what has you so confused, did you think I wouldn't tell you how?" Hiashi asked jovially.
"You wouldn't have built this just to teach me one technique that I could have learned already if we had just gone to a lake. There must be more to it than that." Hanabi stated what she had deduced confidently.
"You do your family proud." Hiashi smiled at his daughter. "Yes, there is far more, but before it can begin, you must be able to walk to me."
Her father had then proceeded to teach Hanabi to expel chakra from her feet continuously at just the right level to hold her up on the water. The technique worked in somewhat the reverse of the technique she'd used to walk on the ceiling. It was also much more difficult. Not only did it require more chakra, but the level of chakra had to be controlled more precisely.
Hiashi watched his daughter stoically. He had to keep himself from laughing several times, but he did far better than his father had when he had taught Hiashi and his brother this simple technique. Hiashi's father had actually laughed so hard he'd been unable to stay above water himself. Hiashi had been worried that by standing here he would become bored, but with the amusement from his daughters initial failures and then the growing pride he felt as he watched her gradually improve, boredom wasn't going to be a problem.
His daughter had begun by tentatively placing her foot over the edge of the water and after several minutes of instructions and practice had began to walk toward her father, sinking and falling completely under the water several times. She was drenched head to toe by the time she made half way. But doing her father proud the young Hyuuga stopped half way and began practicing moving side to side. She had enough dignity not to try and approach her father before she had mastered the technique.
She now stood in front of her father sopping wet, but grinning mischievously. Hiashi smiled back at his daughter the gears in his head spinning. For a long moment the sounds of a lone hammer and the grinding of sanders was the only sound as the Hyuuga Clan Head plotted and his daughter relished her triumph.
The silence had apparently become uncomfortable for his daughter, Hiashi noted as he saw her expression shift uncertainly. But he smiled proudly after he saw that face shift to defiance, realization and then finally a triumphant smirk. She had undoubtedly wondered why he had not said anything and then become determined not to break the silence first. Then she had realized that he would not have stayed out here to supervise this simple training if he did not expect her to complete it quickly and have something else for her to do. Her patience and perception were improving rapidly. Both traits could win battles, both on the field and at the negotiation table.
"You do your clan proud Hanabi," Hiashi said proudly. "Now that you know this technique we can start your training for today." Other girls might have been crestfallen to find that they were only beginning when they had thought that they were done, but not his Hanabi. She had already come to that conclusion and was completely unsurprised. Grinning even more proudly than before; Hiashi stepped back into the Hyuuga fighting stance.
At this point however, Hanabi looked at him questioningly. "Why teach me this technique if all we are going to do is spar normally?" Hanabi asked.
Smirking for a moment before he stood up straight again, Hiashi answered emotionlessly. "Hanabi, the strength of a shinobi does not come from their muscles. A shinobi's strength comes from their skill. It is the most skilled ninja that wins a battle, not the one with the biggest muscles. Do you understand?"
"Yes father, but I don't…"
Hiashi's raised hand silenced his daughter. "Up until now you've fought battles where you only used one technique at a time. This exercise will teach you to concentrate and use your chakra on two things at once. I would expect any chuunin to be able to do this." He waited for his daughter to nod her acceptance before he continued. "Before you take the exam I intend for your control to be well beyond chuunin level."
"Hai /yes/." Hanabi replied excitedly. She had absolute faith in her father's ability to train and her own ability to meet his expectations.
Some time later Hiashi allowed himself a self satisfied grin at his genius before he forced his face into its normal stoic expression. His daughter had as he expected found it difficult to concentrate on her new technique and her fighting skills. Consequently she was now very wet and climbing back on top of the water. Either her fighting skills had degraded or her footing did. Not surprising for a Hyuuga, she had quickly learned to perform the technique from any part of her body that might hit the water as she was knocked down and was now getting the hang of it. Her concentration was improving.
He didn't show it but, Hiashi was very pleased with himself for coming up with this training regimen. Far superior to the silly training methods of his father; Hiashi's new training method would not only greatly improve his daughter's skill and concentration, but it had another purpose as well. One that quickly became apparent. By forcing his daughter to constantly expend chakra to stay on top of the water, she ran out much quicker. By the time the chuunin exam comes around her chakra capacity and her stamina will have increased exponentially Hiashi though to himself as he carried his exhausted daughter back to the compound. Leaving her with servants and instructing them to bathe and dry her, he left to begin his new training regimen.
Naruto had kept to himself for the three days they stayed at Fire Capitol before the anbu arrived. Despite the assurances from his teammates that they didn't care about his being able to use the Kyuubi's chakra, he still had difficulty facing them. He still spent his time body guarding Renjiro, but much to a white eyed young woman's disappointment he always managed to find a way to disappear every time he came near Keiko-san, where his teammates could protect him. This seemed to happen quite often as the two couldn't seem to get enough of each other. Hinata was never able to find where he went, but somehow he always managed to be back by the time the prince had finished courting the princess for the day. Hinata had hoped that he'd be late. Then all she'd have to do is go with Renjiro and not come back when Naruto showed up. Then she'd be able to spend some time with him.
Alas her opportunity never arose. She was sitting in the gardens far enough away from Keiko and Renjiro to afford them some degree of privacy while still being close enough to protect them. She could tell that Naruto was hurting and it hurt her inside to be unable to do anything about it. And watching the two love birds wasn't helping any. She was considering ways to make Renjiro need to leave early when suddenly the palace seemed full of anbu.
A group of six anbu approached Hinata. Each wore Dark robes obscuring their complete forms from view. Faces hidden behind wooden masks the Anbu seemed completely inhuman. They brusquely informed the genin that they were relieved before taking up positions around the happy couple who were now looking nervously at the imposing newcomers. The one wearing an owl mask bowed to Hinata before holding out a small scroll with two hands. "These are your new orders from the Hokage, Hinata-sama," said the apparently female anbu.
Hinata took the scroll and bowed nervously in return though not nearly as low. "Thank you Anbu-san," she said before opening the scroll and examining its contents with Sakura leaning over her shoulder to read with her.
The message was congratulatory and Sakura recognized the sloppy scrawl as the Hokage's. Team Alpha was to return home. Renjiro and Keiko and several members of the Lord of Fire's family were each assigned a three man anbu team to guard them in their absence. Another anbu team was to pick up the bodies of the enemy ninja, which were currently kept under guard by the Lord of Fire's men. And finally another anbu team was assigned to track down the foreign prince and investigate the attempted kidnapping of the Lord of Fire's daughter. All told there would be a dozen teams of Anbu staying in Fire Capitol until the matter was resolved.
After reading the message the two girls informed their charges that anbu would now be looking after them. They were unable to escape before the princess hugged them both vigorously thanking them for everything they had done.
Neither kunoichi spoke until they were alone in the halls again. "I guess we should find the others," Sakura said simply.
"I'll find Naruto-kun," Hinata surprised herself with an abnormal show of bravery. What surprised her even more was when her suggestion was not even questioned by her teammate who agreed to find their Sensei.
Unfortunately for Hinata her moment alone with her blond teammate was not to be as he showed up before she was able to part ways with the other member of their team. "Hey, what's up with all the anbu?" Naruto yelled out as he jogged toward his teammates.
"We got a note from Tsunade-sensei telling us to go back home," Sakura replied. "The Anbu are to guard everyone and figure out what the cloud shinobi were up to."
"Are you sure it was from her?" Naruto asked as he finally came to a stop next to his teammates.
"It looks like her handwriting," Sakura replied simply.
"Hmmm…Let me take a look at it," Naruto asked with his face screwed up in a thoughtful expression, apparently unsatisfied.
Hesitantly Hinata removed the small scroll out of her pocket and handed it to Naruto who took it without hesitation. It wasn't until he started making small thoughtful noises that Hinata stopped playing back in her mind the feel of Naruto's fingers on hers and looked back up to see him reading the scroll. Finally free of her reverie she and Sakura both scrutinized Naruto's squinting face as he examined the message meticulously. He seemed to be going over several parts of it multiple times. By the time he was finally done both girls waited expectantly for what he would have to say. He had after all spent two years of studying with one of the legendary Sanin; he must have learned something about detecting forgeries if he took this long to examine the message.
Finally finished with the message Naruto looked up at his pink haired teammate. "Are you sure this is Tsunade-ba-chan's writing, it's so messy, I can barely read it?"
"Baka," Sakura yelled as she punched him on the top of his head and grabbed the message in one sweeping motion. "If you didn't know what her handwriting looked like, why did you even ask to look at it?" Sakura yelled before storming off in a huff.
Unfortunately for Hinata Naruto also took this as his cue to leave. "Well we better go and get ready to leave," Naruto said before leaving himself. Hinata couldn't help but notice that he didn't move with his usual happy go lucky spring in his step.
They were unable to escape Fire Palace quite that easily however. You don't become personal friends with the ruler of a county without gaining certain social responsibilities. They were able to decline another banquet with the Lord of fire, but not the royal send off.
Most ninja don't finish their missions with fanfare let alone crowds of well wishing onlookers. But somehow it seemed natural when you were around Naruto. Everyone seemed to want to see the ninja that had saved Keiko-hime. Naruto seemed to take great care to smile and wave cheerfully at everyone in the crowd. But the time for goodbyes came as they arrived at the gates of Fire Capitol. Keiko bowed to her two kunoichi body guards again and thanked them for saving her Renji-kun.
Renjiro stepped forward, wanting to talk to Naruto before he left, but Suki-hime beat him too it. She shuffled right past him and ran toward her Naruto-nii-san. In a repeat performance, she leapt into the air latching her arms around Naruto's neck. "Thank you for saving my onee-chan," the young princess said as Naruto squeezed her.
Setting the young princess down, he knelt in front of her so he could look her in the eye. But before he could speak the girl spoke again. "I'm sorry for not believing in you."
Grinning at her, Naruto ruffled the princes' hair. "Don't you worry about it, sometimes I'm so amazing I even impress myself." That comment had Renjiro stifling a sigh, but made the little princess grin. "Now you make sure that all the boys are good to you and if they aren't you let them know that I'll come back, alright?" Naruto said with a wink. Suki nodded happily before running back to her family.
Renjiro didn't think he would ever be able to get used to Naruto's antics with the princess, but as the Lord of fire hadn't called out any orders for someone to remove the impertinent ninja's head, he felt safe approaching Naruto.
Renjiro was still coming up with something fitting to say as a thank you, but the ninja spoke up first. "You'd better take good care of Keiko or I'll come back and do to you what I did to the other guy."
Renjiro was tempted to point out that the other guy still hadn't been found and Naruto hadn't so much as decked him. But considering the fact that according to how he told the story he had apparently blown up the guy who had actually snatched Keiko-chan and run off with her he decided not to push the issue. "Don't you worry, I promised Keiko-chan that I would spend the rest of my life trying to make her happy, and I would never break a promise to her."
Naruto was unable to respond before the Lord of Fire approached him, chuckling good naturedly. "And you'd better take care of your young lady too," the jovial ruler said.
"Don't worry Toshiro-ji-san," Naruto grinned as he extended his fist, thumb up. "They're both safe with me. I'm not the kind of scum that would let something happen to one of my teammates," Naruto said with a wink.
The Lord of Fire just smiled and chuckled to himself. He was sure the boy would figure it out sooner or later.
Not very far away, but out of earshot because of the noise the crowd was making Hinata was getting some similar advice. "Now you be sure to tell him how you feel," Keiko-san told her. "And if your father has any problem with it you let me know, and I'll use all the political pressure I can to make sure he accepts him."
"Thank you," Hinata said quietly and simply. Seeing Keiko-san's love for Renjiro-san overcome the political marriage that her father had arranged reassured the young Hyuuga heiress. It gave her hope that maybe she too could find a way to marry the man she loved despite her father. She left Fire Capital with a new determination and hope in her heart.
Sakura however left the conversation with quite a different determination in her heart. She was determined to find out who Hinata's mystery man was and make sure he got together with Hinata. She spent most of the trip home plotting and scheming. Jiraiya couldn't help but notice how much her insane chuckles resembled her sensei's of a week prior.
Unfortunately for Hinata however, once they had left Fire Capital and the Lord of Fire's family Naruto began to slip back into his previous melancholy state. She tried to bring him out of it, but every time she would talk to him he would put up that fake smile of his and answer her in as few words as possible.
Even though it was the indomitable inner strength he used to make that smile that had first attracted her to him, now that she had seen his genuinely happy face she wanted to do anything that was in her power to let him wear a genuine smile. It hurt her to see him plaster that fake smile on his face, especially when it was for her. She didn't want him to ever need that fake smile for her.
Eventually Sakura had noticed how strange it was that Hinata was talking more than Naruto was and she joined in trying to get more than three words at a time out of Naruto. Eventually they got him talking again and once he finally opened up, he spent the rest of the trip talking more than everyone else combined. Part of Sakura was sorry she'd done anything, but the other half was glad that her teammate was back to his normal loud and idiotic self.
They had barely made it through the gates before they had been escorted to the Hokage's office by a pair of anbu. The anbu had stayed in the office along with a tall menacing Jounin who wore his hitai-ate like a bandana over his bald head to cover scarring even worse than what could be seen on his face. The anbu and the head of Konoha Intelligence, Morino Ibiki were apparently there to do more than guard as they listened unabashedly as Tsunade debriefed Genin Cell Alpha.
Tsunade seemed to ask about every detail. And while Ibiki seemed to take everything in with a cool and calculating composure the anbu seemed to be making a show of being unimpressed. Everything had been going relatively smoothly until Naruto had told Tsunade about his part in setting up the duel for Keiko's hand.
"You put the person you were supposed to be protecting into a fight for his life?" Tsunade thundered at the young ninja that had just re-earned the title of Konoha's most surprising ninja. The two anbu couldn't restrain themselves from laughing behind their masks. Ibiki couldn't help but grin at the sheer, unmitigated ingeniousness of it. His eyes twinkled as he though of all the ways he could have used such a crazy stunt to his advantage. The bingo books of several countries didn't call him crazy for nothing after all.
"Tsunade-ba-chan, there are times you have to fight for what you want or you'll spend the rest of you life wishing you had." Naruto replied sagely. "And he had to fight for her or he was going to spend the rest of his life wishing he did."
"He might have been killed," Tsunade said even more loudly.
"It was just a fist fight," Naruto said noncommittally in return.
"Did it ever even occur to you that the other guy was going to cheat?"
And for the first time in this lecture Naruto began to grin. "Of course it did, that was part of the plan." For the first time, Tsunade was stunned speechless. The anbu just started chuckling even more loudly. And Ibiki somehow managed to look even more maniacal than before.
"Once that stuck up cloud guy started trying to kill Renjiro all I had to do was jump down and stop him and Toshiro-ji-san would see how bad he was and kick him out." Naruto continued as if it was the most obvious of tactics in the world. Hinata, who had been blushing in embarrassment about what Naruto might say about her as her part of the story came up, suddenly became dejected. She'd ruined Naruto's plan.
"And what about the other ninja?"
"I wasn't worried, if they jumped in, we'd just finish them off too," Naruto said lazily waving them off.
One of the anbu couldn't take it anymore. "Idiot! Those were three class A missing ninjas. They were all jounin before they left the cloud. If it wasn't for you're having one of the legendary Sanin as your sensei you'd have all been killed!"
"What?" Sakura yelled, angry for the first time. It was one thing to laugh at one of Naruto's crazy plans. She had been upset about it too. But she had fought that Tin Plated weakling and she wasn't going to be beat by some ninja whose fighting skill came from his armor.
"Ero-Senin was too lazy to help us," Naruto yelled out. "And we didn't need him to beat those cloud bozos!"
The anbu was going to voice a denial when he was silenced by a glance from Tsunade and the sound of her knuckles popping. "So did it go as planned?" Tsunade asked menacingly as she turned back to Naruto.
"No, it went even better," Naruto announced happily. "Somehow Hinata was able to figure out that it was one of the Ninja impersonating the cloud guy and jumped in to stop him before he could even beat Renjiro up!" Naruto looked genuinely pleased with the outcome.
Naruto's loud comment managed to bring Hinata out of her reverie and cause her to start blushing at his warm praise just in time to meekly answer the Hokage's question of how she'd done it. However she was only able to mutter that she'd seen the real prince hiding in the building with her Byakugan.
Sakura had gone on to explain that after watching the supposed prince fight Hinata she'd realized that he fought too well to be the prince. Then once she'd recognized the fear jutsu that that old samurai looking bandit had used and dispelled it she'd noticed the real Lightning Country prince peeking out the door.
From there Tsunade's questions had become even more detailed about the battle with the three ninja. Things were going without a hitch despite Naruto's unwillingness to explain exact techniques he had used, when the anbu from before lost it again. He refused to believe that some genin could be fast enough to defeat the speed of a special jounin from the Cloud's Hakumei clan. Only the Fourth Hokage was that fast.
They finished the debriefing down one anbu. They would have been down two if the Hokage herself hadn't ordered the other one to stop his attempt at attacking the pink haired kunoichi that had knocked his partner out for suggesting that they were all liars.
The debriefing had concluded with Tsunade congratulating cell Alpha on a job well done and awarding them each with several bonuses for the extra body guarding, the successful rescue of the Lord of Fire's daughter and for disposing of 3 missing ninja's.
Naruto had to be forced to take the money. He didn't believe he should be paid for protecting his precious people, which he'd do anyway. Tsunade had tried to explain that ninja missions were always about protecting people in some regard, whether it was body guarding or capturing the people that hurt other people. When that had failed she'd threatened to not pay him at all because his normal job was still protecting people and he was so set on doing it for free. Despite all that in the end they still had to force him to take the money.
It had turned out that Ibiki and the other anbu had been there to get the story about the 3 missing ninjas. They were the ones responsible for examining their bodies and discovering their secrets. Each member of cell Alpha had spent the next day describing their battle in even more detail to Ibiki and his team to help them understand the cloud ninja's fighting techniques and skills.
Naruto had been upset about the whole thing and stated that it made Konoha as bad as the cloud. Ibiki had been furious and explained that Konoha never authorized the kidnapping of children to steal blood limits or blackmail politicians, but apparently the cloud was willing to do both! Three enemy ninja had entered Fire Country with the intent to harm it's people and Ibiki intended to make sure that the ninja of Konoha were prepared as best they could to defeat any further enemy and if that meant studying the bodies of dead ninja, he was going to do it.
Naruto hadn't liked it but had been placated. After his initial interview they hadn't wanted much more with him. He didn't think the anbu believed his story anyway. Unfortunately Hinata's unique perspective kept her tied up with them for three days. So Naruto ended up training alone while Sakura trained with Tsunade until they finally let Hinata go.
They were finally going to go on their second mission as a team and Naruto thought it was great. It was going to be physically demanding, but not very difficult. So it was great training and would be a great opportunity to help them learn to work together better. They were doing construction work.
They were working on some big building that Naruto couldn't remember what it was for. The foundation had been dug the day before by a genin that could control dirt and mud. So when cell alpha arrived they found the building they were working on was little more than a hole with cement drying around it and metal and wood poking out in places.
The construction workers had been very impressed with the last genin team's impressive ability to get the foundation dug. The young man had dug in minutes what they had expected to take a couple of days. But the team had consisted of that young man and two girls who just weren't suited for a day of heavy lifting so they had requested a different team be sent by the Hokage. They were disappointed to see that their replacement team consisted of an old man, a boy and two more girls.
The foreman had a nasty taste in his mouth that had nothing to do with the fact that he hadn't been able to find his brand of cigarettes that morning, when the old man introduced his team and left them in his care before leaving. He was scowling when he ordered the team to unload a truck full of large beams that would be used for the framework of the building and distribute them to several strategic locations around the site. That scowl only deepened when he was done yelling out his orders and he began to think about how he was going to yell at the Hokage for sending him a team so unfit for menial labor. His scowl however seemed to be physically wiped off of his face by some unseen hand when the obnoxious blond boy that he was sure was going to wear himself out and be useless by the end of the day slung three times what he expected his strongest laborers to be able to carry and bounded off while the pink haired girl shouted something to him about pacing himself.
Had the foreman been an animated character his jaw would have been hanging down below his beltline when he saw the shy waif of a girl pick up about half of what the first boy had and begin to trudge away with it. Being only human however he was unable to keep the cigarette in his mouth with it that far agape. It took him a couple of minutes to answer the question the pink haired girl had asked while putting on her gloves.
The young woman was pulling out boards before the question even registered. He tried to look thoughtful to cover his shock. Watching her warily he was both relieved and disappointed when she only took a grown mans load of lumber. "Yes, make sure to get lumber to each spot so the framers can start right away," the foreman told the young lady's retreating form.
Sakura hadn't ever really done much that involved heavy lifting and had never needed to carry lumber. She wasn't surprised to see Naruto, Mr. Stamina walk off with a near truck load over his shoulders, but after seeing how much Hinata was able to carry she was surprised by how heavy wood could be. With her precise chakra control and Tsunade-sama's strength technique she could easily throw the truck, lumber and all, to the other side of the construction site. So she was surprised when Hinata could carry significantly more than she could. But Tsunade-sama's technique was only good for short bursts of strength and with the crazy jacket Hinata sometimes wore Sakura had to accept that for long tasks like this Hinata was stronger than her.
After watching the three working the foreman soon realized that he'd have to stop smoking as he couldn't seem to keep a cigarette in his mouth while watching these three. When he wasn't suffering from slack jaw he found himself unable to stand because of the laughter. He quickly determined to hire them for the next few days.
The foreman wasn't the only one to notice the power of these ninja. They couldn't have been working for more than an hour when several workers approached Naruto requesting he tone it down, because he was making them look bad. Anyone who is familiar with construction workers and the way they generally request things can guess how this went over with Konoha's number one loudest and most surprising ninja.
Naruto had knocked each of the offending workers on their backside and was halfway into his speech about how giving everything he had was part of his ninja way when he went from standing up straight to lying face down plastered into the cement in under a second.
"We're supposed to be helping these people, not beating them up," Sakura yelled angrily before she politely bowed and apologized to the other workers. Sakura didn't seem to notice the looks of terror in the eyes of the men as they graciously assured her that there wasn't a problem. Whether they were more afraid of Sakura's incredible strength or the fact that Naruto climbed out of the impression he had made in the solid cement floor, we may never know. But no one was willing to complain when they had to pour cement back into the Naruto shaped impression in the foundation.
Hinata however got a different reaction entirely. Mesmerized by her strength and beauty she became the topic of conversation all over the site. Some of the workers that weren't scared away by her distinctive eyes didn't even stop when she was working near them. Barraged by overheard comments about herself and even a few one liners and bad pickup lines Hinata couldn't help but blush profusely and begin to work more slowly occasionally dropping things. This however only made the laughter and comments worse.
It didn't take very long for Naruto to see what was going on. After hearing several men's suppositions about some of Hinata's more personal proclivities where not only he could hear, but she could as well Naruto snapped and told them to knock it off in no uncertain terms. Hinata was a lady after all.
Rather than asking if Naruto was deaf, because of course they were talking about a lady or even threatening the upstart teenager these hardened construction workers immediately bowed and offered their sincerest apologies to the young lady. And from that point on they did their best to be perfect gentlemen in front of the young Lady Hyuuga. Many went on to treat every woman they ever met with much more respect.
To this day when asked each of those men would say that they were touched by the stirring words of the boy who claimed he would be the 6th Hokage one day. However his words were likely made more stirring by the fact that when he yelled at them he was carrying four times as much weight in lumber than any one of them hopped to ever be able to carry.
Afterward the worksite became unnaturally quiet as no one dared speak around the ninja. It was if a foreboding cloud covered the area. Even the sound of hammers seemed muffled. When suddenly a shrill scream rent the air and the orange clad ninja dropped the truckload of wood he was carrying and ran, yelling ouch the whole way. Work came to a crashing halt as not a single man could restrain his laughter at Naruto's childish antics.
After running to meet her teammate Sakura was enraged when he told her he'd gotten a sliver. 'And I had actually been worried about that idiot,' her inner voice raged as she told him to take the sliver out himself. His cries about her being a medical ninja fell on deaf ears. She hadn't studied Medicine for three years to pull out slivers after all.
Amidst the construction worker's laughter Hinata's quiet voice surprised her fellow ninjas. "I'll take it out Naruto-kun," she said quietly. Shocked silent Naruto turned toward his other teammate. He hadn't heard her come up, but then again he'd been screaming and had a sharp pain in his hand.
Wordlessly Hinata reached out and pulled Naruto's open hand toward her and knelt down forcing Naruto to follow. Blushes colored both of their cheeks, but after a few moments of shy embarrassment and a close inspection of her beloved's hand she saw a splinter in his thumb. Then ever so gently she removed the offending piece of wood from his hand using a needle and some tweezers from her sewing and medical kits she kept in her pouch.
Hinata was about to apply some of her ever present homemade ointment to the wound when Naruto spoke up. "Thanks Hinata that feels a lot better, but could you get the one in my hand?" Naruto requested as he began to slowly remove the black wraps on his arm revealing a piece of wood red with blood just barely jutting out from his palm.
After a few moments of shock Hinata opened her byakugan and began to carefully remove a splinter of wood the size of a 10 penny nail from the blond ninja's palm.
Grinning widely Naruto thanked Hinata profusely as he immediately began to wrap his hand and wrist. But Hinata held fast to his hand stopping him so she could apply her ointment, which was both a disinfectant and analgesic. The wound seemed to close on contact.
Sakura was shocked but was interrupted as she began to question Hinata bout the ointment. "The ointment is good, but that was…him," Naruto said quietly and gravely.
"It heals you?" Sakura asked in a whisper, but clearly surprised.
"When I die, so does he," Naruto said simply as he stood up and began to walk away, rewrapping his hand and wrist quickly.
"Well you should wear gloves if you don't want something like that to happen again," Sakura said loudly to Naruto's back.
"Nah, it's alright, a real ninja doesn't worry about little things like that," Naruto said gruffly.
Somehow even though they couldn't hear what was said everyone working at the site seemed to be able to tell that something significant was happening. Consequentially a silence uninterrupted by even a single hammer fell over the site. So when Hinata squeaked out Naruto-kun's name everyone including Naruto stopped and strained to hear the quiet girl.
"Naruto-kun, please wear some gloves. Even if you…if you heal really fast, it would…it would make me sad if you got hurt."
Touched by his teammate's plea and seeing the glitter of the tears forming in Hinata's eyes, Naruto knelt down and gently wiped away her tears with the untied portion of his hand wraps. "That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," Naruto said to the girl who was now beginning to blush and look at him hesitantly. "I'll put on some gloves, OK?"
Hinata nodded and thanked him.
Like all such moments this one passed and work continued. By the end of the day even Naruto had to slow down. No one was about to complain as he was easily doing the work of two men. Hinata continued working steadily if quietly, but everyone was particularly kind to her, often smiling and winking at her as if they knew something she didn't. Many even offered strange word of encouragement like, "You go get him," and "You'll show him," and even a few "were behind you all the way," 's.
Sakura unfortunately had the worst. No one gave her any trouble and they were definitely polite to her. Though it's unlikely that Naruto had anything do with that, at least nothing he said. But unused to this kind of work and definitely not dressed for a day in the sun, she was about ready to pass out due to heat exhaustion. And for some reason when the foreman announced that he had arranged with the Hokage to have them continue to work with him for three more days she seemed the only one who was displeased.
Well to be honest Hinata didn't really say a thing about it, she just stood there and smiled at Naruto who was jumping up and down in excitement. "I'll get even stronger," he chanted as he ran around in circles holding his hands above his head.
'Darn stamina freak,' Sakura thought. He still had energy to run around and she was about to collapse. Not only that, but she was sure he could go home, but she was going to have to buy new boots. She needed something without high heels. Her ankles were killing her.
The foreman had a much different thought. 'If he wants to get stronger I'll have to have him push the back end of bulldozer in reverse!"
The next day started much the same, except for Sakura. Instead of her dark tight fitting clothes complete with high heeled boots that she usually wore, she wore light loose fitting clothes complete with workers boots and a red T-Shirt tied just above her stomach. She may have had to make some concessions to utility, but she refused to look any less than her sexiest.
Naruto and Hinata both dressed the way they usually did, complete with jackets. Looking at the clear sky Sakura could tell that it was going to be another scorcher. How did they survive wearing coats in this weather?
It wasn't long before Sakura found herself sweating like a pig. This day was fast proving to be hotter than the day before. Even Hinata had unzipped her jacket to try and keep cool, though she had left the last couple of inches zipped. Sakura grinned to herself thinking of Hinata's shyness. It took her a few minutes to realize that Hinata had to be really hot if she was willing to unzip her jacket at all.
The young medic-nin was resting by the water cooler, trying not to make the same mistakes as yesterday when the realization struck her. Filling two cups with water she decided to find her soft-spoken teammate.
When she found Hinata, Sakura could tell that she had been right. Sweat was dripping of the shorter girl's forehead in sheets. Convincing her teammate to set down the boards she was carrying and drink the water she had brought, Sakura told Hinata to be sure to keep herself hydrated.
"And in this heat, you really need to take off this jacket…" Sakura had already finished unzipping the offending article before Hinata had finished the last of the water. She didn't have time to resist before Sakura started moving the jacket off the shy girl's shoulders. "You don't want to get heat STROAK!" The last part came out as a surprised yell as she dropped Hinata's coat. Her yell was accented by the loud crunch of boards being snapped by the jacket's weight. The scene was enough to draw the attention of most of the construction site.
"You're still wearing that crazy jacket?" Sakura screamed in shock.
Now those who hadn't been attracted to the loud crunch and Sakura's yelp couldn't help but notice her scream. Fortunately Hinata had opted to wear something that covered her better than that tube top had. However the conventional one piece Ninja Uniform she was wearing was far more form fitting that Hinata would have liked under the circumstances. And as the crowd of construction workers gathered around the two kunoichi they could tell that Hinata had plenty of form.
After several moments of fidgeting, trying to move her arms into a position that would hide her shape, Hinata finally managed to mutter something in the affirmative.
"You'll wear yourself out doing all this heavy lifting and wearing that thing." Sakura could see that her teammate was more self conscious than concerned about her own health. "You didn't wear that thing yesterday did you?" Sakura asked, hoping to use another track to dissuade her teammate from hurting herself.
"Yes…" Hinata replied unable to meet her teammate's eyes.
"See you…." Sakura's eyes bugged out as her jaw dropped. "You did?" Sakura yelled, obviously shocked.
Reduced to stuttering and yammering, Sakura was unable to respond to the worker who yelled out. "Let her wear the jacket if she's so uncomfortable without it," said a man that the entire work crew suddenly suspected was gay. That notion wasn't dispelled when he fell on his butt trying to pickup Hinata's jacket.
"What…Why do you wear that crazy thing when your doing heavy work like this?" Sakura asked breathlessly.
When Hinata didn't seem to be able to answer, Naruto spoke up. "That's the point," Naruto said as he walked through the crowd that gathered. Everyone moved to let him through despite the view.
"That's how weight training makes you stronger."
'Hasn't he ever heard of a bench press?' Inner Sakura raged. They both must have spent too much time around Lee, she figured. Hinata had a similar enough hair style, if she had thicker eyebrows….
Sakura was spared from her painful reverie by two topless young men that had been making great shows of showing off their muscles every time Sakura or Hinata would pass by them. "If she values strength so much, let her wear it," the two said as they attempted to lift Hinata's jacket. Between the two of them they managed it but were having trouble walking with it. Their obvious strain drew laughter form the crowd.
"What's so funny?" Naruto asked angrily as he walked toward the two struggling teenagers. Thanking them he took the jacket with one hand, shook the dust of it and slung it over his shoulder as if it were a common windbreaker. Seeing that they'd lost, the two shirtless men fell to their knees and began to bawl. A few of the older men that had seen the antics of the now crying young men couldn't help themselves and began to laugh even louder.
Naruto just ignored them as he walked over to Hinata and helped her put her jacket back on. The action made Hinata weak in the knees, but no one noticed.
It took Sakura nearly a full minute to recover from the incredulity of the situation and for the second time Sakura bemoaned her fate of being on the same team as two certifiably crazy people. Seeing she'd lost that battle for now she decided to work on her other teammate. "And what about you Naruto? It's too hot to be wearing a jacket, you'll get heat stroke."
"Nah, I'm fine. See this is the same jacket I wore yesterday and I was fine then." Naruto didn't give his teammate time to argue and walked off. Seeing that the show was over the crowd began to disperse.
'They're both crazy,' Sakura thought to herself as she cradled her head in her hand. Then, remembering the day before she had an idea. Moving toward her remaining teammate Sakura whispered in her ear, asking her to get Naruto to take his jacket off.
The request was almost too much for the young woman who was still recovering from the affects of having been touched by the man she loved so fervently. Hinata almost passed out.
Misinterpreting her teammate's wooziness, Sakura tried to encourage her friend. "It won't be that hard, Naruto listens to you," Sakura said reassuringly.
Her thoughts still filled with images of a bare-chested Naruto, Hinata finally managed a yes. But it took her an hour before she was able to make her first attempt.
Deciding to try the straight forward approach she managed to stutter out her concern and requested he take of his shirt, err... jacket. His warm smile as he assured her that he was fine distracted her from continuing on that track.
Later she tried to use the same trick Sakura had used on her. She brought him some water but the pat on her shoulder he gave her as he thanked her distracted her from her goal.
Normally two failures would have been enough to depress the young Hyuuga, but filled with images of Naruto's chest Hinata was emboldened and tried several more times to get Naruto out of his shirt. But each time Naruto's charms managed to stop her dead in her tracks until finally they were through for the day. Somehow despite her failure she couldn't feel dejected over it.
Even construction crews take weekends off and so Genin Cell Alpha found themselves with a couple of days of free time. And Sakura intended to make the most of it. For this task she had enlisted the help of her sometime rival sometime cohort Yamanaka Ino. They were meeting at that den of estrogen, that warren of teenage angst, that coliseum where women both young and old both prepare for and do battle, the mall. They had met there early to ambush their intended victim. At least that's what Hinata felt as she approached them.
Sakura grinned manically as she saw her teammate approach. With the help of an expert consultant, Haruno Sakura LD is going to save this shy young woman's love life by turning her into a heart stopping goddess that her reluctant lover won't be able to resist! The poor sap won't know what hit him.
"Are you ready?" Sakura yelled excitedly.
"Ready?" Hinata asked uncertainly and more than a little afraid.
"Remember what Keiko-san said?" Sakura began to move closer to her intimidated teammate. "Well, when we're done with this make-over no boy will be able to say no to you," Sakura said, leaning forward and grinning excitedly in Hinata's face.
"Yup, Naruto won't know what hit him," Ino said as she leaned over Sakura's back and gave Hinata the victory sign with her fingers.
"Naruto?" Sakura's asked incredulously, her body now ramrod straight causing Ino to bounce off.
"You planned all this and didn't know?" Ino asked surprise evident in her voice now.
"How would I have known," Sakura retorted.
"She's like, only had a crush on him since forever."
"What?…. When did….How did…?"
Seeing her coconspirator had been reduced to incoherent babbling, Ino turned her eyes onto the target of her complete fashion makeover-no-jutsu. "Come on," she said as she grabbed Hinata's hand.
Unfortunately for Hinata she was still too caught up in the implications of how many people knew her secret. When she came back to herself she was in the back of a clothing store having her measurements taken.
Sakura took a little bit longer to come back to reality. During her mental voyage to determine what any woman could see in Naruto she had taken a trip down memory lane and arrived at the Konoha Ninja Academy. But there her memories turned painful as she remembered the love of her life; the man that had left her to fulfill his revenge.
Wiping away a tear from her eye Sakura realized she'd been left behind and rushed into the mall. She found her friends in a clothing store. Hinata was having her measurements taken. She heard Ino telling her something…
"Well you don't have to worry too much; all we have to do is make you prettier than forehead-girl…."
"What!" Sakura exploded. From there the conversation quickly deteriorated as lightning sparked and the fight ensued.
On the other side of the mall in the back of an arcade that just happened to share a wall with the security station pandemonium ensued. Boys that had been left in the only male-safe zone in the mall stared at the screens intently, while older men who had been abandoned here by women that had forced them to come with them placed bets on the latest cat fight. Yells of, "You don't have to take that," "Pound'em", and "Get her," could be heard several stores away. Just to the side an angular faced young woman with straight, shoulder length brown hair smiled wickedly. It was after all her most profitable business venture yet.
This fight however never came to blows, but those who had witnessed the fight's intensity would likely never forget it. The two combatants finally calmed down, sweating and short for breath. Hinata stood red as a tomato behind them.
"All I'm saying is…that the only person Naruto has seemed interested in…is you," Ino said between breaths. Ino leaned closer to her pink haired friend and began to whisper conspiratorially. "I say we find some pants that'll keep Naruto walking behind her…and let her keep the jacket since she's not as…big up top."
Sakura was reluctant to respond, but if this operation was going to be successful, the Love Doctor couldn't be selling her patients assets short. "Well actually…"
Hinata couldn't tell what her two companions were whispering about, but some how she knew that it wasn't good. She was considering the implications of sneaking out when they pounced. Hinata never saw it coming, before she knew it her jacket was on the floor.
Ino was speechless; shocked to see the big guns Hinata kept concealed under her jacket. Even the gay guy that had been taking her measurements seemed to be impressed. Sakura felt a little jealous as her inner voice raged about the injustice of shy girls that would never use them getting all the luck. But she had to admit to herself that the only boy she wanted to be paying attention was nowhere to be seen.
Ino went into overdrive as the girls began to discuss strategy. Though, Hinata didn't seem to be able to offer much. She would say two words, usually "I couldn't," or "My Father," before she was interrupted.
It was during this discussion that Sakura realized something. "You know it's strange, but Naruto hasn't hit on me lately," Sakura interjected out of nowhere.
"Well you've been on a pretty serious mission," Ino replied off handedly.
"That wouldn't have stopped him before," Sakura replied before Ino could steer the conversation back to fashion strategy of seduction.
"Maybe he's changed," Ino replied
Before Sakura could voice her doubts Hinata broke in with her longest sentence of the day. "Um…Naruto-kun told me that he didn't think that you could love him because of…" Hinata spoke very hesitantly, and even more quietly.
"What?" Sakura yelled. "I told him I didn't care about that! That f…." Sakura had to stop herself from saying the vulpine word.
"What about that fool?" Ino asked. She could tell that the other two girls knew something she didn't.
Hinata stood silently. Unfortunately for Sakura, silence was so normal for Hinata that no one would expect her to answer anything. That left her to answer Ino's question glare. "Well…uh…you see," Sakura stuttered out. "Well actually it's classified."
"What could be classified about Naruto?" Ino asked too loudly. "I mean he's just a genin."
The last comment struck a nerve in Sakura. She was unhappy about her current status as a genin, even if it was just a ploy. No one was going to suggest she was weak, just because she was still a genin. "Oh, really," Sakura began. "Then if he's a genin, you won't mind fighting him then?"
Sakura would never forget Ino's face. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. But before Ino could say anything she was interrupted by a newcomer.
"If you do, I just want to see the look on Lee's face when he finds out that Naruto got back and fought a girl before he fought him." Tenten couldn't help herself and started to laugh at her own joke.
Sakura couldn't take any more and fell down laughing. She couldn't decide which was funnier: Ino's look of terror or the crazy antics she could imagine Lee going through as he challenged her.
Once the laughter died down the girls chatted briefly before Tenten got to the point and asked what they were doing. Ino and Sakura grinned mischievously as they explained they were helping Hinata catch the eye of a certain someone. However they were not prepared for what happened next.
"You're doing it all wrong!" Tenten exclaimed as she grabbed Hinata and began to drag her away. Her jacket left forgotten on the floor. Fortunately there weren't many thieves strong enough to lift it so it was fairly safe where they left it.
Sakura and Ino followed clueless around several corners and through a door before Tenten finally stopped in the largest Lingerie store the girls had ever seen. "If a girl wants a guy to think she's sexy, she has to feel sexy!" Tenten announced, and then dragged the girls deeper into the store.
Hinata was again unable to resist. She found she couldn't think clearly surrounded by so many things she could never imagine herself wearing. And if Naruto saw her in… Her cheeks which had been such a rosy color since she entered the mall, became a much darker red
"Naruto's a lucky guy," Tenten commented after she gave Hinata an appraising look.
"You knew too!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Every body knew," Ino Said, "even Shikamaru did."
"So, Shikamaru knows everything," Sakura replied
"He doesn't know that, that girl, Temari from the sand asked Hokage-sama for him specifically to be her personal escort every time she's here." Ino retorted.
Hearing her name Temari walked toward the gaggle of girls grouped together. She had left Shikamaru at the front door of the shop. The sand kunoichi thought it was cute how he didn't have the courage to come inside with her. She'd tease him about it later. Unfortunately it wouldn't be as good as the teasing that she would have given him if he'd have come in though.
"What are you girls up to?" Temari asked abruptly.
Seeing who it was Tenten immediately explained that they had a friend who was having trouble getting a boy to notice her, so they were trying to get her something that would giver her confidence. Temari however was unimpressed. Harrumphing at the girls' childish antics, the blond woman decided to explain to them how an adult woman would handle this type of situation. Looking at Hinata she spoke calmly. "If the boy won't notice you, why don't you just take him out to your forest, throw him on the ground and have your way with him?" Temari asked as if it was the most obvious thing.
The red color that had been growing on Hinata's cheeks suddenly expanded to cover her entire face and neck. Her fingers that had been fidgeting in front of her were now being used to loosen her collar. Steam would not have seemed out of place rising from her neck.
Sakura was shocked. She wanted to yell at the sand kunoichi that that wasn't how things were done here in Konoha, and Hinata was a lady. But none of it managed to come out and she was reduced to incoherent muttering again.
Ino and Tenten were taking it the best, but both were speechless. Ino came back to herself first, though not because of any great amount of mental fortitude or control. She heard her name being called.
Looking to the side Ino saw Mrs. Nara, Shikamaru's mom, walking toward them wearing a friendly smile. "Ino-chan, what are you and your friends doing here?" she asked. Caught red handed, Ino stated they were trying to help a friend with boy trouble and explained Tenten's theory. She didn't dare tell someone that knew her own mother about Temari's advice. She'd be married before she could go out unchaperoned.
Looking at each girl, Mrs. Nara picked out Hinata's cherry colored face. "It's you isn't it dear," she said kindly as she walked up to the blushing girl. "Here's what you do," she began before she leaned in close and began to whisper into the shy girl's ear.
If Hinata could have blushed any deeper she would have. But by the time Mrs. Nara had stood back up, and patted her shoulder Hinata's eyes were glazed over and she was no longer steady on her feet. When the older woman finally turned and began to walk away with the parting words of "good luck dearie," Hinata couldn't take any more. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out.
End Chapter 6….for now
I had originally intended to cover the entire period between the Fire Capital Mission and the chuunin exams in one chapter, but I got concerned that it would be too long. So I decided to divide it into two. This isn't where I intended to stop, but because the chapter has been taking so long, I decided to post what I had so far.
Thank you to my proof readers who helped me fix several grammatical mistakes and make a few spots a little easier to understand.
For those of you who asked for more fluff, I hope this qualifies. Now that the story has been established and time passes we'll see more of Naruto and Hinata's relationship progressing. If this didn't qualify as fluff, you'll have to define what you want better, as I apparently don't know what you mean by fluff.
I'm working Sunday's this month and where I work that means sitting in front of a computer waiting for something to happen that's not going to happen. So hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out considerably faster.
As always my response to reviews will be in the review section. (Just look for the incredibly long review by KlosetAuthor.) And I will try to keep everyone up to date on the story status in my profile.
Please stay tuned for Hinata's Story: Underneath Your Clothes, Chapter 7: You might get it, or Teddy Bears and Snakes
Naruto and Hinata get a taste of family life and someone even scarier than the Kyuubi may change their lives forever.