Hinata's Story: Underneath Your Clothes
Chapter 7: You Might Get It
Disclaimer: See chapter 1 and don't charge anyone to read this story, you might get more than just money.
All weekends end too early for most people, but for Hinata this one couldn't have come fast enough. The beginning of the new week had Cell Alpha back working at the construction site and after three days the building that had been weeks behind was well ahead of schedule.
A genin's life could be very boring, but not because of lack of variety. In the following weeks Naruto and company found themselves collecting honey for a beekeeper, tracking down several dozen bunnies that had escaped from a breeder, putting up shelves in a library, and separating male and female chicks in a chicken coop. However, even simple tasks are not without their dangers as Naruto seemed to perpetually learn or forget, depending on how you looked at it. Surely it wasn't his fault that he didn't know that beekeepers wear a special outfit to protect themselves. And how could he have guessed that his orange jacket would make him look like a giant carrot, it had certainly helped gather the bunnies in the end though. Then how was he supposed to know that you could tell the difference between boy and girl chicks by their feathers; that farmer girl didn't have to hit him like he was some type of pervert. And how did that librarian expect him to hammer quietly.
But now they were faced with their greatest challenge as a team: babysitting. Naruto didn't hear who he was babysitting for or why, because he was to busy muttering complaints about his perverted sensei. He should have known better than to say something like that to make a girl angry. And he was still cursing his sensei under his breath as he walked with his teammates to their latest assignment. Said pervert wasn't even there to escort them. He was probably already out peeping.
Naruto didn't even notice when he started to rub his sore shoulder. It had been hurting him since he finished training the day before and hadn't gone away, even after a good night's sleep. That almost never happened to him.
His suffering didn't go unnoticed by his teammates. "Are you ok Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked only slightly hesitantly.
"Oh, I'm fine," Naruto said grinning a little too widely and speaking a little too loudly to be completely telling the truth.
"Did I do that?" Hinata asked a little more hesitantly.
"Nah, don't worry about it," Naruto waved her off. "It was Ero-senin's fault for making you mad like that."
"Mad?" Hinata said questioningly thinking back to the day before.
She and Naruto had been training with Jiraiya-sama. Hinata had been elated to be able to spend some time with just Naruto-kun. Well, it had almost just been her and Naruto-kun. But she had trouble fighting him if it meant hurting him. She was very careful not to fight him any harder than she knew he could defend and their sensei had noticed.
"You know when he's on a mission he's going to be attacked by people that want to kill him, not kiss him," Jiraiya-sensei had yelled bringing the fight to a screeching halt.
Hinata's heart almost stopped as all the blood in her body seemed to rush to her face. She could feel the heat radiating off her face when she managed to look up from the ground to see how her Naruto-kun would react.
Her shoulders had quivered in fear as she slowly turned to face him. Would he think she was weak for not having the courage to tell him herself? Would he reject her? Was she too shy or too dark or weird for him to ever accept? All these fears and many more raced through her heart as she turned to face her beloved teammate.
The poor girl's heart plummeted into her stomach when she saw Naruto-kun's bewildered face. Her fear of rejection moved back to its home in the back of her heart, but for reasons she couldn't understand the shy young woman felt more disappointed than relieved. Her train of thought was interrupted by her new sensei before she could figure out why she felt that way.
"He won't get stronger if you don't fight him with everything you have," Jiraiya continued before Naruto could question him. "If you love him, don't hold back."
Those words struck a chord in Hinata's soul. For a moment she couldn't stand straight because of the thought that she could lose the one she adored, because she didn't help him become as strong as he could become.
The next moment Hinata felt a fire burning in her veins and as it spread outward from her heart it took away all traces of fatigue from her body. She was determined that no one would ever take her Naruto-kun away from her; at least not because she had failed him! Fueled by that fiery determination Hinata split the air with her battle cry as she exploded into action, turning to attack Naruto-kun before their sensei could even tell them to continue.
Hinata had fought long and hard. She was still fighting with Naruto-kun when Jiraiya had left them. They had trained well into the night until Naruto-kun had to help her drag her tired body back to her home. She had worked herself to near exhaustion before, but some how it had felt different this time. The passion in her heart had somehow allowed her to work longer than she could have before. She knew that this was what Naruto had been feeling so many times when she had watched Naruto train himself into the ground.
Remembering the events of that night, Hinata blushed as she and her team resumed their trek toward their latest assignment. Despite what Naruto-kun had though she hadn't been mad. In fact she was thankful to their sensei for the opportunity she had to know a little of what it felt like to be Naruto-kun.
Thinking back about it she found she liked what she was when she was like Naruto-kun. She wanted to become more like him so that she could be the type of girl he would love. But more than that she wanted to be like him, because she felt that then she could love herself more. And she felt determined to never do anything that would let people take her Naruto-kun away from her.
When team Alpha finally got to the door Sakura decided she had better take charge. She obviously couldn't let Naruto take the lead and Hinata wasn't the take-charge type of person.
She could already tell it was going to be tiring being the responsible person on the team. Naruto would try to take charge, but he was too crazy. And Hinata would probably agree with anything he said just because she liked him. Well at least now she knew why Hinata was so crazy. She was letting Naruto influence her too much. Sakura figured once she got them together she was going to have to make sure Naruto didn't make her as wild as he is. Well, no good deed goes unpunished after all.
Sakura knocked on the door gently but firmly. Taking care of a child is easy enough, but part of good babysitting is making the parent feel comfortable so that meant a smile. So despite her annoyance that someone of her talents was being wasted on a babysitting mission, Sakura placed a friendly smile on her face while her inner voice raged.
The door was opened by a young woman that couldn't have been thirty yet. Her fair complexion contrasted sharply with her dark eyes and shiny black hair that fell down her back in sheets, reaching a couple of inches below her shoulders. Her smile must have been why her husband married her. She was pretty and well endowed, but her smile seemed so innocent and so caring that it could melt even the stoniest of hearts. After seeing it, Sakura found that she couldn't be upset about babysitting if she was doing it for her.
Kioko was pleased to see the two girls at her door. Girls were naturally better at babysitting and so many genin teams didn't have a single girl on them. She must have gotten very lucky to get a team with two. Then she saw the boy that was on the team. It was that boy.
Both girls noticed the change in the woman's face. Hinata followed the cold look in her eyes to see her blond teammate acting oblivious to the older woman's scorn. Closing her eyes and swallowing Hinata braced herself before she spoke up. "Ano, Naruto-kun is very good with children," Hinata said nervously and a little rushed.
Looking slightly confused at the exchange Sakura glanced back at Naruto before she turned to Hinata. "Well that's just because he's really just a big kid himself." Before Hinata could reply Sakura turned back toward their client to reassure her. "Don't worry if we can keep him in line, your kid won't be any trouble," Sakura said, widening her smile even more.
The young mother didn't seem completely convinced, but she forced a smile on her face despite her reservations and stood aside to allow the genin to enter her home. She gave Naruto a guarded look as he walked past her.
It wasn't long before cell alpha found themselves alone in their client's living room. Kioko-san had given them several flustered last minute instructions before she left them with her baby, who was currently taking a nap.
With the worried mother gone, not to return until late that night, the three genin found themselves left to their own devices in a strange living room. Each sat quietly lost in their own thoughts. Naruto found himself rubbing his still sore shoulder. That was when Sakura noticed it.
"What happened to your arm Naruto?" Sakura asked eyeing his shoulder analytically.
"Ah, it's nothing, I just hurt it practicing," Naruto said before looking away. But he didn't stop rubbing his shoulder.
"Maybe I better take a look," Sakura replied as she began to get up.
"NO!" Naruto yelped as he turned back around, his free hand reaching out to ward his teammate off. Unfortunately Sakura was a little closer than she had been when he turned aside so his hand nearly contacted with her chest.
Jerking his hand back as if he'd touched something scalding hot, Naruto pressed himself into the couch he'd been sitting in and began flailing both hands in a defensive gesture. Though for some reason he kept them very close to his body. "I…I… mean it's no big deal…. It'll be fine tomorrow," Naruto said frantically.
"Are you sure?" Sakura asked with her sweetest smile. Boys were such babies about getting medical treatment, but that wasn't going to stop her.
"Yah, normally it would be fine after getting a good night's sleep." Naruto looked down, suddenly turning somber. Naruto still didn't feel comfortable talking about his unnatural healing abilities. The subject was too closely related to the Kyuubi.
Naruto was still confused about why the good for nothing fur ball hadn't fixed his shoulder. Maybe it was because he hadn't slept well the night before. Every time he had gotten to sleep, he'd woken up with images of those eyes looking at him: Hinata's eyes.
The truth was that even now that they were on the same team, Naruto seldom got to see Hinata's eyes. The shy girl that she was, she was usually looking down or away from him. But when he did see them they were soft and filled with kindness. But yesterday they were filled with passion. He'd seen that focused fire in here eyes twice before, but it had never been directed at him. But now that he'd seen it, he couldn't stop seeing it. Every time he'd looked at his usually timid teammate, he kept seeing the tigress trapped inside her. It was distracting.
Apparently oblivious to the ramifications of her teammate's sudden sullenness and distraction, Sakura saw an opening and dove in. Naruto had unzipped his jacket part way down so he could rub his shoulder under his shirt, so after a couple of hand seals it was a simple matter for Sakura to slip a hand through his open jacket and under the black T-Shirt he wore underneath to get to his shoulder. Naruto was so distracted that he didn't seem to notice. That just made it easier for Sakura to make her diagnosis.
What Sakura saw with her diagnostic jutsu surprised her. The tendons and ligaments in Naruto's shoulder were healing at an abnormally fast rate, but not with the kind of speed she'd expect from seeing the way his cuts had instantly healed. Judging by how fast it was healing and its current state she guestimated that it would finish healing by the end of the day.
Then it struck her. If this injury had happened yesterday and still looked this bad after healing at the rate she was seeing, then it must have been severe. The baka had probably seriously injured his shoulder then kept training. It was a good thing they had such an easy mission today or he'd probably make it worse instead of resting.
Sighing to herself, Sakura resigned to check his shoulder again tomorrow and make sure they got another easy mission if it wasn't healed yet. It was that sigh that drew Naruto out of his reverie and made him aware of his surroundings, including the pretty girl whose eyes were closed leaning so close to him.
Yelping suddenly Naruto jerked himself away from one teammate only to slide down the couch and bump into the other. This time both yelped and moved away from each other slight blushes appearing their cheeks. Though due to Hinata's skill at blushing, 'slightly' left her cheeks considerably redder than Naruto's.
Sakura took it all in stride as if nothing unusual had happened. "Well it looks like your all right, just take it easy on that shoulder for a while," Sakura said in her most professional tone.
"Uh…Ok," was all Naruto could stammer out.
"I can probably make something we can put on that shoulder that will help with the pain," Sakura continued. "But I'll need…"
"Ano," Hinata showed rare courage interrupting someone. But if her Naruto-kun was hurting, she couldn't sit still and do nothing. "I have something that could help," she said softly as she reached into her jacket pocket for one of her ever-present healing ointments.
Turning to her other teammate Sakura grinned to herself. The gears in her head started spinning; cranking out a plan. "There you go Naruto." Sakura couldn't take the grin off her face. "If you're nice, maybe Hinata will rub that into your shoulder for you." 'The Love Doctor is in the house!' Inner Sakura screamed.
Hinata nearly dropped the jar she was handing to Naruto. In order for Hinata to rub the ointment into Naruto's shoulder, he'd have to take off his shirt. If Naruto took off his shirt then Hinata would be able to see…and then she would have to touch him… Hinata didn't think she could handle it. She tried to say something but words wouldn't come out.
"It's all right, I can do it myself," Naruto replied as he took the ointment from Hinata's trembling hands.
"Actually Naruto, it really needs to be rubbed in everywhere, it's best if someone else does it," Sakura replied smoothly. The love doctor wasn't going to be beaten that easily.
"It'll be all right, I've been doing stuff like this for myself for years while I was on the road training with Ero-Senin. So if Hinata doesn't want to, I can handle it myself."
"Hinata wants to, don't you Hinata?" Sakura winked at her.
With both her teammate's eyes on her, Hinata was finally able to get sound to come out of her mouth. Unfortunately what she managed to sputter out was completely unintelligible.
Turning away from his obviously embarrassed teammate, Naruto gave Sakura a disapproving look. "I don't think that Hinata's that kind of pervert, Sakura-chan," Naruto said reprovingly.
Sakura took a menacing step forward and took a deep breath as she clenched her fists before she stopped herself. There was a baby in the house after all. "It's a medical treatment, not some kind of sick fetish," Sakura said between clenched teeth, before she stormed out of the room as quietly as possible.
It had taken Sakura a little while to calm down, but looking at the baby, who miraculously enough had slept through all the commotion, had helped. Sakura couldn't believe that Naruto, the creator of Sexy-no-jutsu, had the gall to suggest that she was a pervert. She's a doctor not a sex-fiend! Besides girls aren't perverts, only boys are.
She had been trying to help him and that idiot had been too dumb to figure out that Hinata likes him, despite all the signals. It was so completely obvious and that moron hadn't been able to tell. It was unfortunate that Hinata hadn't been able to give Naruto the rub down, but it looks like he might have been so clueless that he wouldn't have noticed.
If Naruto was too dumb to notice if Hinata made the first move, maybe she could get him to do it. But no, right now if he made the first move, Hinata would probably just pass out and Naruto's ego might not be able to take that. This was going to be a difficult case to cure, but Haruno Sakura the Love Doctor wasn't going to be beaten that easily!
Meanwhile, across town from where Sakura was refusing to be beaten by Naruto's stupidity, another genin team was starting another boring genin mission. Hanabi stood in the large living room of her well to do client's home. It was nice enough, but the floor was littered with children's toys. Their client had greeted them jovially and rushed out moments later, leaving Hanabi and her teammates in this room. Standing between her teammates, Hanabi found herself in a staring match with the young mistress of the house.
The young mistress stood with her bare feet spread wide and her fists grinding into the sides of her denim short pockets glaring back at Hanabi. The small girl wore what looked like a pair of overalls that had been the bottom just below the chest cut off. Hanabi supposed it was supposed to be some sort of halter top to match the shorts. Not that the little girl was old enough to have anything to show off with an outfit like that. Hanabi couldn't complain, because she had yet to develop in that respect either. The girl looked up to both sides at Hanabi's older and taller teammates.
Hanabi hated feeling short. She was a child prodigy who had become a genin when she was nine. Now two years later her teammates were still older and taller. Consequently she was constantly looked down on as too young to be a ninja, or even worse, she was completely overlooked. She refused to be treated as an inferior ninja by this little girl.
"What are you doing here?" the little lady asked while whipping her head to the side to flip her long golden braid of hair back over her shoulder and turning to glare at Hanabi.
"I am one of the ninja whose job it is to look after you today," Hanabi said between clenched teeth.
"Yeah right, I bet your parents were just too cheap to get ninja of their own to baby-sit you," the impertinent child replied.
"I do not need a baby-sitter, I'm a Nin-Ja," Hanabi hissed back.
"Sure," the girl waved dismissingly. "And I'm a princess, and this is my castle. You can be my maid."
"I am Hyuuga Hanabi of the Hyuuga Main House. I will one day be the head of the entire Hyuuga clan." Hanabi announced boldly while straightening to her full height and puffing out her chest. "I am not a servant!" Hanabi made sure to keep her head level so that she was looking down at the impertinent brat.
"Ok, I'm Kimihoshi would you like to have tea," the young girl said hopefully.
"Tea?" Hanabi asked questioningly. "You are familiar with tea ceremony?" Somehow Hanabi doubted it.
"No, silly," the girl giggled, "a tea party."
"Tea Party?" Hanabi asked questioningly leaning down a little closer to the strange girl.
"Yeah, a tea party. First everyone sits down, you pour the tea and you talk to all of the guests." Kimihoshi sighed and shook her head. She couldn't believe she had to explain it like she was talking to a boy.
"Guests, what guests?" Hanabi asked confused.
"You, me and my dollies," Kimihoshi replied excitedly.
"I'll have to decline," Hanabi said coldly.
Exasperated the little girl crossed her arms and pouted. "Fine, we can play ninja."
"I am a ninja, I don't play ninja." Hanabi replied coldly. She'd have put her hands on her hips but her teammates were standing to close to her.
"Oh really?" Kimihoshi had seen plenty of girls Hanabi's age and none of them had been ninjas. She knew you had to be 12 or 13 to become a ninja and some people didn't become one until they were even older. "If you're a ninja, than how many people have you killed?" Kimihoshi smirked, knowing that she'd caught the older girl.
"I've never gone on a mission where I was ordered to kill anyone," Hanabi said through clenched teeth. The fact that despite her talent she'd gotten nothing but easy/safe missions for the years she'd been a ninja was a sore spot with her. How was she supposed to prove her worth if she only got easy missions?
"Huh, some ninja," Kimihoshi sneered, turning her nose up at the obviously lying girl. "If I was as big as you, I bet I could beat you up."
"Maybe when you've earned one of these," Hanabi pointed to the Hitai-ate hanging from her neck, "we'll get the chance to find out." She was about to take a step forward when Kei-san touched her shoulder.
Kimihoshi seemed unfazed. "That's a fake."
"It is not a fake," Hanabi replied, shocked that anyone would suggest that she would wear a fake Hitai-ate.
"If it was real you would wear it on your head, not like some necklace." Kimihosi and Hanabi both looked at the other two ninja in the room. Both of whom wore their Hitai-ate on their forehead and both of whom were trying not to laugh. "It's not just some jewelry you know," she continued. "A real ninja wears their Hitai-ate on their head proudly. It's a symbol that shows that they are willing to give everything that they have to protect their village, their country and all the people in them."
Hanabi didn't care to be lectured by the meaning of being a shinobi by someone that had never even entered the academy. "I am a Shinobi of the Leaf, but I am a Hyuuga first. And Hyuuga of the main house cannot wear anything over their forehead." Hanabi spoke in her most firm and commanding voice.
"Your no fun," the young girl pouted as she turned around. "You can go play ninja by yourself," she yelled as she stomped off loudly.
"Just a minute," Hanbi yelled firmly, before the girl could get too far away. "While I'm here there will be a few rules."
Kimihoshi whipped around and ran back to the now yelling Hanabi. "You can't…" she stopped when she looked up at the biggest ninja of the group. She'd seen him trying not to laugh, but now he just looked down at her and nodded his head.
"She's really…?" Kimihoshi began. Suraido, the only male member of his team, just looked down and nodded at the shocked little girl. Kimihoshi looked back up at Hanabi and glared challengingly.
Hanabi had one finger held in front of her, pointed in the air. "One, there will be no stomping or running." Kimihoshi opened her mouth to protest, but Hanabi raised another finger and cut her off. "Two, there will be no yelling."
"You can't…" Kimihoshi began to say whinily.
"No back-talking," Hanabi's face and voice both became more stern.
Unable to take anymore, Kimihoshi's face began to screw up.
"No crying," Hanabi added coolly as if to stop the little girl who appeared ready to do just that. "And put away your toys, I'm sure they don't belong in this room."
Kimihoshi really was ready to cry when the third member of the team squatted down to her level and put her hands on the distraught child's shoulder. "Hi, I'm Kei, lets pick up this room together," she said cheerily.
Kimihoshi looked at the other girl questioningly for a moment before she wrapped her arms around the ninja's neck and started to cry. Hanabi watched embarrassed as Kei-san hugged the crying girl and whispered comforting things to her. She'd never seen anyone be so affectionate in public and never with a stranger. She wanted to turn away, but instead raised her eyebrows questioningly, while looking imperious.
She didn't understand what Kei-san was doing. Children after all need to learn to stop crying and grow up. Crying never got them anything. It had definitely never gotten Hanabi any hugs or acceptance or praise. Those had to be worked for.
As soon as she got back Sakura took Hinata into the kitchen to have some girl talk. Naruto had wondered what girls talked about when they were having girl talk, to which Sakura had replied that if they wanted boys to know about it, then it wouldn't be girl talk. Then she'd been shocked when Naruto just nodded his head sagely as if that had been the answer he was looking for all along.
Taking one quick glance back out the kitchen door to make sure that Naruto wasn't trying to listen in Sakura left the door slightly ajar, so she'd be able to see him if he tried to get close.
"Hinata, that was the perfect opportunity," Sakura squealed quietly. "He'd have taken off his shirt and everything," Sakura continued her rant apparently oblivious to the Hinata's growing redness. "Why didn't you say you'd rub his shoulder for him?"
"I…I…I d…d….didn't…th...th…thi…" Hinata couldn't look Sakura in the eye and was reduced to stuttering incoherently. But even though her words didn't come out Sakura heard everything she needed to know what she meant.
"Oh honestly Hinata, what are you going to do if he kisses you?" Sakura asked the poor shy girl. It took her a couple of moments to realize that Hinata's rigid posture and completely glazed over eyes meant that she wasn't going to be able to answer. It gave a pretty good impression of what she'd do though.
Hinata wasn't given time to recover from her mental meltdown naturally. She was drawn from her reverie by the sound of a baby crying. By the time the baby had let out his second wail both girls had jumped into action. Sakura had thrown open the door just in time for Naruto to barrel into it face first at a full tilt run.
Naruto made sure he was the first to enter the baby's room. Seeing something looming over the baby's crib Naruto jumped into the air tackling it and landed with a soft thud on the far side of the crib.
Sakura came in second and immediately approached the baby who had been crying. Hinata followed immediately after and switched on the light. The baby, no longer crying, was making quiet cooing or maybe giggling sounds as he looked through the bars of his crib at Naruto.
Once the light had come on, Naruto had been able to see that the attacker that had been standing menacingly over the baby's crib was just a stuffed animal. He stood up slowly with one hand behind his head; the other was holding the fuzzy black cat he'd tackled. His embarrassed expression only seemed to make the little baby giggle harder.
Rather than scold him Sakura looked down at the squirming infant. "Kano-kun, is Naruto being silly?" she asked in her deepest voice as she leaned over the side of the crib. "I think he is!" she said playfully as she lifted the baby boy's shirt and blew a raspberry on his stomach causing him to squeal.
"You don't have to keep telling him that," Naruto whined. Sakura, however just looked at him, chuckled and returned to playing with the baby.
"I..I don't think she meant anything by it, Naruto-kun," Hinata said quietly only to get a blank look from Naruto-kun and a "huh." "She was just playing with the baby," Hinata replied. Naruto still didn't understand.
Hinata was trying to come up with a way to explain the situation to Naruto, who obviously hadn't been around babies before, but was interrupted by the sound of a baby crying. They both turned around to see Sakura holding the now crying baby.
"So that's what's wrong," Sakura whispered conspiratorially to the still crying baby. Naruto shivered when she turned to look at him. He couldn't say what, but there was something menacing in her gaze despite the smile on her face.
"Naruto," Sakura called in her sweetest voice. "Kano-kun needs you."
"Kano-kun?" Naruto asked confused.
"The baby!" Sakura said exasperated, "Didn't you pay attention to what his mom told us before she left?"
"Well I usually…" Naruto began to mutter quietly, looking anywhere but at his teammates.
"Well here," Sakura interrupted, holding the baby out under Naruto's nose.
"What do you need me to do?" Naruto asked as he took the baby.
"Change his diaper," Sakura said with a smirk as she began to walk away.
"B…But I…" Naruto began to sputter out.
"Naruto," Sakura interrupted and turned back around. "Would you want a couple of strange girls looking at you like that?"
"Well no, but…"
"Right," Sakura said, not letting him continue. "Since you're the only boy here, then you'll have to change his diaper," Sakura said simply and turned to walk out.
"But I don't know how…" Naruto finally got out.
Sakura paused until Hinata spoke up. "It's all right," she said softly. Naruto sighed in relief. "I'll help," Hinata said as she slowly guided Naruto over to the changing table.
Sakura felt a little guilty for roping Hinata into changing the baby. She'd known Naruto didn't have much experience around babies; otherwise her trick wouldn't have worked. But she hadn't thought about the possibility that he would never have changed a diaper before. It wasn't exactly neurosurgery, but this was Naruto after all.
Sakura watched the two of them changing the baby's diaper from a safe distance. After seeing Hinata slowly and quietly teach Naruto, Sakura thought the Hyuuga girl had the patience of a saint. She would have clobbered Naruto when he pulled out a kunai /knife/ to remove the diaper, but ever gentle Hinata had merely pushed it away and showed him how the diaper detached at the sides. She'd even blushed and looked away when she'd touched his hand.
Sakura had never seen anyone that was so happy to be changing a diaper. Hinata smiled the whole time as she quietly corrected Naruto and ensured that he handled the baby gently enough. Sakura was sure it had to be some trick of the light, but Hinata even seemed to glow.
Meanwhile, while Hinata was getting a taste of her dream to one day raise children with Naruto, Hanabi was having a nightmare. First she'd had to pick up jacks to keep from stepping on them and then it had been tacks. She'd had to catch a glass jar before it hit the ground when she opened the refrigerator. But it was when the tripwires had started to spring up that she'd known something was wrong.
Now that the little bundle of trouble hadn't been heard for a while it fell on her to find out what the little runt was doing in her room. She should have checked with her byakugan. That's what she thought after she had opened the door and gotten some gooey mixture of something dumped on her head. She'd yelled at the little brat, but the she-devil had just laughed and jumped out the window. She was long gone by the time Hanabi got to it.
After what was probably the slowest diaper change in young Kano-kun's life, Hinata carried him to the living room; Naruto following close behind. An eerie quiet filled the living room as Hinata sat the baby on her lap. Little Kano-kun just stared at the three strange people that he'd found in his house. His head moved back and forth between them as he watched them, innocent wonder evident on his face. The three ninja all watched him back in a not so dissimilar way.
Kodak moments like those don't last forever, especially with people of varying attention spans. "So what does he do?" Naruto asked, shattering the silence and shocking his female companions. Kano-kun must have thought it was funny, because he just giggled.
"What do you mean, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked hesitantly.
"Well…" Naruto began rubbing the back of his neck. "Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon would want to play ninja or practice jutsus or something, but what do you do with a baby?"
The two girls just looked at each other, not sure how to explain it. They each seemed to want the other to try it. Hinata's reputation for silence saved her again. "Well I guess mainly you have to watch them and make sure they don't hurt themselves," Sakura began her shaky explanation. "And when you play with them you do things like bouncing lightly or play simple games or just talk to them to try to make them smile or laugh…"
"Oh…OK…" Naruto murmured thoughtfully as he walked behind the loveseat Hinata was sitting on with little Kano on her lap. "Hey Kano-kun," Naruto began as he leaned over Hinata's shoulder. Fortunately for Hinata, Naruto and Sakura were both standing behind her, so only Kano-kun could see the color of her face, as it turned pink due to Naruto's nearness. She could feel his breath on the side of her face.
"A Genin walked into a bar…" Naruto began his joked when Kano began to laugh prematurely. Confused, Naruto straightened up and turned to his teammate. "Hey, Sakura, why did he start to laugh, I haven't even got to the punch-line yet?"
Hinata and Sakura couldn't keep themselves from laughing, though Hinata was trying significantly harder. Then Kano decided to join in for good measure.
"What's so funny?" Naruto asked. "Why is everyone laughing?"
Able to hear the slight pain in Naruto-kun's voice Hinata stopped laughing. Kano-kun however apparently thought it was hilarious and kept giggling. Sakura hadn't completely stopped chuckling herself when she answered her teammate. "Naruto, Kano-kun isn't old enough to understand what you say?"
"But you said to talk to him and try to make him laugh?" Naruto replied confused.
"What you say doesn't matter, you're supposed to smile and say things in silly voices or make funny faces or something like that."
Hinata might have added something, but half way through Sakura's comment she felt Naruto's breath in her hair, as he turned back toward the now silent but smiling baby. "Silly voices…?" Naruto asked, his face screwing in confusion. He'd seen parents playing with older children outside, but he'd never really seen anyone doing anything but dotting on babies and it was all kind of new to him.
"Well you seem to be a natural," Sakura replied after Kano-kun had started to giggle again.
"Thanks Sakura…," Naruto began before what she meant sunk in. "Hey!" Naruto said, more shocked than upset as he turned back to face her.
"He seems to like your voice, maybe you should hold him," Sakura said, deflecting her teammate's bruised feelings.
The ploy was effective. Shocked and perhaps a little nervous at the prospect of holding a baby, his head jerked back toward the little one. Kano just looked up innocently from Hinata's lap and smiled at him toothlessly.
Hinata, who had been unsuccessfully trying to find something to say to soothe Naruto-kun's bruised ego after Sakura had teased him, suddenly had her mind go numb when she felt Naruto's arms around her as he reached for the baby. She wasn't able to hear Sakura's instructions to him, because her mind started to shut down as Naruto lifted the baby off of her lap. She might have liked to help teach Naruto-kun how to hold a baby safely, but she was currently lost to the world.
"You know I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable being with a boy that likes the sound of my voice," Naruto said half to Sakura and half to the grinning baby. Little Kano's only response was a single giggle when Naruto bounced him slightly, as he shifted the baby in his arms.
Sakura had to sigh. "It's not like that Naruto," she began to explain. "Kano-kun probably spends all day with his mom, and probably doesn't hear a boy's voice as much, so when you talk, it sounds different than what he hears most of the time."
"Oh, that makes sense," Naruto replied a little too quickly, making Sakura suspicious if he really did understand. "That's right!" Naruto said excitedly to the baby in his arms. "Kano-kun's gonna be a big ladies man, I can see it already. The girls will be chasing him everywhere he goes."
"They'll be saying…" Naruto switched to his best impression of Sakura's voice. "Kano-kun! Can I sit next to you Kano-kun? Will you go out with me Kano-kun? Can I be your girlfriend Kano-Kun?"
Fortunately Naruto's impression of Sakura's voice wasn't very good. So instead of knocking Naruto into next week Sakura just laughed with the now wildly giggling baby. She'd seen other girls act just like that over Sasuke. Though she'd never been that crazy.
Naruto's voice changed to one of mock seriousness, drawing Sakura away from her reverie about all the things she'd seen silly girls do to get to her Sasuke. "Now, Kano-kun, if some girl ever comes up to you and asks you to marry her or let her have your child…."
Naruto couldn't have chosen a better time for his dramatic pause as both of his teammates gasped at once. "You run away!" Naruto exclaimed gaily as he bounced the baby in his arms and took several quick steps to on side. Kano-kun loved it and squeaked in appreciation.
Hinata had a great deal to be proud of. Not only had she not fainted at Naruto-kun's sudden contact, but she'd come back to her senses halfway through Naruto's rant about Kano-kun's eventual suitors. Blame it on her perceptive nature, but unlike her teammate, she knew exactly whose voice Naruto was impersonating. And though a part of Hinata secretly wished she had the courage to ask Naruto-kun those questions, she tensed waiting for her other teammate to lose it.
And Hinata's fears may well have come true if Sakura hadn't once seen a girl a year or two older ask Sasuke the same question. After seeing that her pink haired teammate wasn't going to attack Naruto-kun Hinata sighed with relief, while Sakura raged in her mind against the tramp that had had the audacity to try and give Sasuke a peek down her shirt as she asked to have his child. Fortunately no one had ever asked Sakura if she'd have used the same ploy if she had at the time been more well endowed. Consequentially we may never know.
Completely oblivious to the melodrama in his teammates' heads Naruto continued. Seeing how much little Kano enjoyed the motion he continued to espouse the virtues of a tactical retreat as he swished back toward his teammates and then spun as he moved away from them again.
Kano-kun's peals of laughter drew Sakura away from her inner diatribe in time to see Naruto turn his ear toward the giggling baby he held. She completely missed Hinata's rapt stare and the mild blush on her cheeks. Naruto did too as he nodded his head thoughtfully as if Kano had been telling him a secret.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto called out after he turned to face her. "Kano-kun says he thinks he needs dancing lessons."
"That's a good idea, Naruto," Sakura said slyly as she sauntered around the love seat Hinata sat on. "You'll help us, won't you Hinata?" Sakura asked smirking. Normally Hinata's stuttering inability to reply would have gotten her out of a situation like this, but Sakura had already placed a hand under the shy girl's arm and lifted her out of her seat. A slight push later and Hinata found her self stumbling into Naruto.
As the daughter of a noble house Hinata had been trained in most of the traditional arts. She had been trained in etiquette, tea ceremony and most types of traditional dance. Her instructors however would have been appalled at the way Hinata stumbled around, unable to keep herself upright without leaning into Naruto, while Sakura stood by his side walking him through a basic dance step. Normally Hinata would have done her senseis proud, but with her hands on Naruto-kun's shoulders and his hand on her hip, the hand that would normally have grasped her right was holding up Kano-kun in-between them, Hinata found it difficult to concentrate on standing up, let alone a simple dance step.
Sakura however thought it was brilliant. No matter how dense a boy was he was bound to be captivated by having a girl's best assets pressed up against him. Indeed if she'd have paid a little more attention she'd have noticed that Kano-kun was enthralled.
Hanabi finally found the little brat when she walked back into the living room drying her hair after having to clean out all of the goop the little monster had gotten stuck in her hair. She was clinging onto Kei's leg as if to keep herself safe from Hanabi's wrath.
When Kimihoshi saw the anger in Hanabi's eyes she gripped Kei's leg even more tightly. But once she saw Hanabi wasn't going to attack or even yell at her Kimihoshi set out her lip defiantly or perhaps petulantly and declared that she was hungry.
This took Hanabi by surprise, but not wanting to show any weakness she immediately took charge. "What do you want?"
"Ramen."
Without missing a beat and with almost military precision Hanabi twisted on her heel and headed into the kitchen. She was the daughter of a noble house and of course she knew how to cook. It was a necessary part of a lady's upbringing. And though she was a shinobi Hanabi was still a lady. It never occurred to her that most kunoichi were just as well trained as she was given the need for kunoichi to be able to act as normal women of any station during espionage missions. It definitely never occurred to her that many were more well trained than she.
Hanabi descended on the kitchen like a storm. Loud banging and crashing sounds could be heard as cabinets opened and closed and pots and pans were moved quickly. Cooking was just like any other battle and Hanabi fought to win.
Ramen isn't the most difficult dish to make and after several minutes the storm that was Iron Chef Hanabi quieted down. Kimihoshi chose just that moment to appear suppressing a smirk. "I changed my mind; I want beef and potatoes instead."
Hanabi smirked. She wasn't beaten yet. "Alright…" she said smoothly, the gears turning in her head visible through her eyes. The secret to ramen was making the broth. It would be no problem to strain the meat and other ingredients and fry them in a pan while cutting up potatoes to bake. Grinning manically Hanabi set into action and soon the kitchen was filled with bangs and crashes again as Hanabi rushed back and forth in the kitchen.
Kimihoshi would have liked to have witnessed her handy work first hand, but listening to it would have to do. She couldn't stay in the kitchen or she would have been trampled by the ninja girl as she ran back and forth across the kitchen. So she sat in the living room, waiting for the kitchen to quiet down again.
After the initial flurry of action Hanabi sighed contentedly. What had once been Ramen was now going to be some of the best beef and potatoes she'd ever cooked if she did say so herself.
It was at that exact moment that Kimihoshi chose to come back into the kitchen trying her best to smile like an angel. It came off looking more like the smirk of a devil. "Potatoes take too long to cook, I want ramen instead."
Hanabi just laughed. The girl had played right into her hands. It would be simple to put the meat back in a broth, she'd been trying to figure out what to do with it anyway, and the potatoes would cook faster if she fried them. Besides what little kid doesn't like fried potatoes?
Hanabi's explosion of activity forced Kimihoshi back into the living room where she smirked happily. Suraido was just as amused. It had taken a while, but he had been forced to admin that Hanabi-chan was just as capable a fighter as Kei. She handled herself reasonably well and kept up with the rest of the team, but Suraido knew that she was just too young to be able to manage as a genin. If this little girl could manipulate her, this easily what would happen on a real life or death mission? It never occurred to him that he had no idea what she should have done instead.
Kei couldn't believe Hanabi had actually let Kimihoshi convince her to change what she was cooking. It was obvious that she was just going to keep her switching back and forth to make her work harder. She would have put a stop to it if she had realized that Hanabi would actually fall for it. But now she didn't know how to tactfully put and end to it, but she knew she had to.
So when the Kitchen quieted down again Kei followed her young charge into the kitchen. She was unsure how she was going stop this without causing a screaming match. Fortunately she didn't have to.
Hanabi might have jumped into action when Kimihoshi said she'd had an apple and wanted beef and potatoes now, but she'd been lied to and it stopped her dead in her tracks.
Hanabi was good at detecting lies, so when she saw the way the little girl rubbed her nose as she spoke and the way her shoulders were tensed as she tried to act casual she knew that something she had said was a lie. Using some of the Hyuuga techniques for remembering details she realized there were no apples sitting out in the house, nor did she see any apple trees in the yard. She also noticed the girls gums were devoid of the slight swelling she'd expect to see if someone had been chewing something as firm as an apple. It only took a couple seconds more for her to determine what the little brat had been up to and decide how to act.
Smiling as sweetly as she could manage Hanabi spoke. "I'm sorry, but dinner is almost ready and we're having Ramen and fried potatoes."
Hearing the almost sweet sound of the girl ninja's voice, Kimihoshi knew she was busted, but she wasn't ready to give up. "But beef and potatoes is better!"
Hearing the little girl whine Hanabi decided she couldn't let the brat win. "It's too late, I can't change it."
"Then start over."
Hanabi had been tricked, not once but twice now. Out of patience she yelled: "We're having ramen for dinner and you can eat it or you can be hungry!" The rest of the little girl's whining fell on deaf ears as Hanabi turned her back to her and continued cooking.
Naruto had finished cooling the bottle. He was supposed to be warming it, but as soon as he'd left the kitchen tossing the too hot to handle bottle between his hands Sakura had screamed at him and demanded that he cool it down enough so it would be safe for the baby to drink. He had just finished cooling it off but keeping it warm, just like Sakura had told him to, but she still looked ready to yell at him when he came out the door.
Thankfully his nice teammate, Hinata got up first and carried Kano-kun over to him. She told him to squirt a little on his wrist to test it and didn't even laugh when he dropped the bottle because the milk was still too hot inside. Sakura wasn't so understanding.
After gently picking up the bottle, Hinata lead Naruto back into the kitchen, while Sakura was still laughing. Once there she helped Naruto cool his arm and the bottle with some ice.
Naruto's arm healed at its usual unnatural rate. By the time Hinata said the bottle was ready Naruto found himself holding Kano-kun while Hinata coached him on how to hold the bottle and the baby so Kano could drink it.
Naruto didn't know how he got roped into this job, but something about the way Hinata smiled at him and the baby wouldn't let him refuse her anything. He couldn't put his finger on it. Usually when someone smiled at him, it was to laugh at him. But when Hinata smiled she seemed to almost glow and she didn't even laugh at him when she was teaching him how to burp the baby and Kano-kun spit up all over him. Her eyes just seemed to sparkle as she held the baby while he cleaned up.
Sakura, however left the room laughing. Naruto didn't know when she had come in. He had been so focused on Hinata and the baby that he hadn't noticed anything outside the small area of the kitchen he and Hinata occupied.
Dinner had been finished and the dishes were washed and put away. Hanabi had seen to this while the little brat that had tried to trick her watched TV with the other two members of Hanabi's team. Now it was getting late and Hanabi determined it was time to send her charge off to bed.
She stalked out of the kitchen as if anticipating a battle. Her hands were on her hips and her back was rigid. "It's 9 o'clock time for bed," Hanabi said sternly.
"But mom won't be back for hours," Kimihoshi whined, slumping her shoulders as she turned to face a determined babysitter.
"And you'll be in bed by then," Hanabi set her shoulders resolutely.
The argument had gone down hill and higher in volume from there. Eventually the little brat had somehow convinced her to play a board game with her. Only it hadn't ended with just one game, they had to play until she had won. Then since Suraido being the only boy hadn't one yet, then they had to play until he had one, despite his protests that a man can accept defeat with honor. The eventually gave up on the board game as unwinable for him and switched to cards. Suraido apparently had no talent for games at all, as it was on their third game and after midnight when Kimihoshi finally fell asleep.
Sakura found her teammates asleep on the couch holding the baby between them. They were leaning against each other, their foreheads together with the baby's face held up to theirs. Sakura thought she should take the baby and put him in his crib, but she just couldn't. They looked so cute! If only she had brought her camera, Hinata would love a picture of this!
After they'd eaten their dinner, Naruto had insisted on everyone dancing with the baby again. Naruto had acted so excited when she'd shown him a back step in the waltz. Apparently Jiraiya had used a similar movement to dodge him for some time and had never shown Naruto how to do it.
When they finally finished dancing, Naruto and Hinata had really gotten into the act of playing with the baby. They'd plain worn him out. And apparently they'd worn themselves out as well.
Sakura watched Naruto and Hinata arrive. As usual she had gotten to their training area first. Naruto was usually last, arriving just barely on time, usually running. Today however, he showed up at the same time as Hinata. They were walking together, Naruto talking animatedly and loudly. Sakura could hear his voice, but couldn't make out what he was saying as he waved his hands excitedly about something. Hinata's hands stayed close to her body, shy as ever, but she was clearly listening intently as she smiled coyly.
They seemed to be getting along better, Sakura thought. She was pleased that Naruto was paying better attention to Hinata. Sakura had to yell at him earlier when he had left Hinata alone after one of their one on one late night training sessions. Actually it had been more of an all day and into the night training session. Sakura couldn't understand how those two could do that.
It had been late when Sakura had finally been able to leave the hospital. She had spent a long day training with her sensei, Tsunade-sama. She had been traveling down one of Konoha's now dark streets just in time to see Hinata stumbling home. She caught up to her just in time to catch her when she collapsed
Worried, Sakura had instantly switched into medic mode. She searched Hinata for any sign of injury, first with her eyes and then with several medical jutsu in quick succession. After just a few moments, Sakura came to the conclusion that she was just exhausted, and after several attempts to rouse her unconscious teammate Sakura began the long walk back to the hospital lugging Hinata on her back.
Fortunately she ran into Hinata's old teammate, Kiba. She didn't think to ask what mischief he was up to this time of night, but seeing his obvious concern she let him help by carrying Hinata.
They got to the hospital and immediately turned Hinata over to one of the healers. They eventually agreed with Sakura's prognosis that she was just exhausted, though they definitely didn't take her word for it.
Sakura and Kiba had stood outside, looking into Hinata's room through a window as she slept peacefully despite the IV in her arm that was restoring fluids and nutrients that her body had burned during her work out. Standing outside the room Sakura realized how much alike Hinata and Naruto really were. She mumbled, "She's just like Naruto; training herself into the ground like that."
Sakura was shocked by Kiba's vehemence when he denied it. "Hinata's trained like this since she became a genin. Maybe Naruto stopped being a lazy bum and started training like her, but she's nothing like Naruto."
The argument had gone down hill from there until they were both kicked out of the hospital. But looking back now she realized she didn't know when Naruto had started training so hard. She had seen him train now and was amazed by it, both by his stamina and his determination. She now knew that she would never have Naruto's endurance. He could train harder and longer than she could and only just break a sweat. Then he would proceed to train for two to three times as long and hard as she could until he had finally wore himself down to the ground and could barely stumble home.
The truth was he'd trained like that since she'd gotten to know how he trained. Jiraiya-sensei said he'd been doing it since he was in the academy. At that time and even when they had become genin she hadn't paid much attention to him let alone his training. She'd just assumed he didn't train much; because he didn't do very well, but Jiraiya-sensei said that the kyuubi's chakra interfered making it harder for him. Hinata's lack of confidence caused by her family's disparaging did the same. Would they be able to help each other?
"Are you ready to fight with everything you've got?" Naruto asked while Sakura was still caught up in her reverie. He'd taken to reminding Hinata to fight with everything she had before each training match to make sure Ero-senin didn't upset her again. He enjoyed a good fight, but he didn't need the stuffing knocked out of him every day.
"Yes," Hinata nodded her head excitedly despite her shyness. When she spent much time around Naruto it was hard for her not to get excited. His attitude was so contagious.
"We'll train hard and become the strongest ninja in the world, so we'll be able to protect the people we care about!" Naruto grinned intently at Hinata causing her to have trouble meeting his gaze. Her heart drew out to him in wonder. The more she got to know him the more incredible she found him. How could anyone not love someone so wonderful? He was so earnest and nearly everything he did was to protect the people he loved. He still sometimes talked about being Hokage; it was still his dream. But Hinata could tell that he wasn't training just to fulfill a dream, he trained tirelessly so he could protect his loved-ones. That was his motivation and the source of unending determination.
"Well it'll be easier for you," Naruto continued, despite her blushing, "because everyone is so scared of you that they won't mess with anyone if they know you're around!" Naruto gestured excitedly.
"I'm not…" Hinata tried to interrupt, but Naruto wouldn't let her.
"I'll bet the Sound's bingo book says: If you see Hinata, don't mess with her or she'll knock you through a tree!"
"But, I didn't…" Hinata tried to interrupt again, with same results.
"Of course you didn't," Naruto said it like it was obvious to everyone. "That sound teme ran away before you could beat him senseless. I bet he went straight from the Laundromat where he cleaned his pants to have that added to their bingo book!"
Naruto didn't remember when it happened. One of the first steps in his plan was to compliment Hinata to help her see how strong she already was. Somewhere along the way he had started to enjoy complimenting her. It wasn't because he thought it was funny the way she blushed and acted embarrassed. He didn't think it was funny it was endearing in a way he couldn't understand. The real reason had more to do with her shoulders, the way they sometimes got straighter as she stood a little taller, and her eyes that some times seemed to shine a little brighter. When it happened he could tell that she felt better about herself and it made him happy in a way he couldn't describe. So he kept complimenting her, no matter how silly it sounded, so he could see more.
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata tried to sound exasperated. But it's hard to sound exasperated when you can't wipe the embarrassed grin off your face. "I'm not that strong."
"Tell it to my leg," Naruto replied instantly. "It still aching today after whatever it was you did to it yesterday." Ever since that day that Ero-senin had made her mad, Naruto had taken extra effort to let Hinata know when she had hurt him. He wanted her to know when she had fought well and gotten a good hit in. It never occurred to him that it might discourage her from fighting hard, which it had done at first. But he sounded so happy when she managed to hurt him that she couldn't stay upset about it for long.
During some of his speed training, Ero-senin had told him, 'don't think you're fast; know your fast.' Ero-senin had said something about confidence stopping hesitation or something like that. Naruto thought something like that might work for Hinata. He wanted her to know she was strong, not just think. So he did everything he could to show her how strong she was.
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud bang. The suddenly tense genin relaxed seeing the smoke obscured image of an obviously relaxed woman. The smoke cleared revealing a woman wearing a large trench coat over fishnets and a few other bits of clothing that barely made pretence of concealing her modesty.
"Where's Jiraiya-sama?" the newcomer asked a little more loudly than was strictly necessary.
"You're that crazy lady from the chuunin exams!" Naruto gaped and pointed at her.
"My name is Mitarashi Anko," the newcomer said through gnashed teeth. "Your sensei, Jiraiya-sama asked me to show you some of Orochimaru's jutsus today. So where is he?"
"Oh," Naruto replied seemingly oblivious to the Special Jounin's irritation. "If he knew you were coming he probably decided not to show up today so he could…err…slack off." Naruto had learned it wasn't wise to let any female know what his sensei was likely up to.
It had been Hinata's idea. Knowing how important it was to Naruto to get Sasuke back, she had asked their sensei if there was anyone that could show them the types of techniques that Orochimaru might be teaching Sasuke so they could be prepared for what he might do. And so this encounter had been arranged. The only question was if the way Anko and Naruto seemed to take to each other like a cat and dog was arranged as well.
Sakura tried to stem the brewing conflict by suggesting that since Jiraiya-sensei wasn't likely to arrive they should get down to the business of Anko showing them the techniques and how they were used. Unfortunately she didn't have the foresight to disagree when Anko suggested that showing them in actual combat would be the best way for them to learn to counter them.
In all fairness Sakura didn't remember which of them had started it, but before the fight even began Naruto and Anko had started taunting each other. It was just like the way Naruto and Sasuke bickered as they fought, Sakura remembered in a poignant moment that had nearly gotten her bitten by a snake.
The fight had started with Naruto getting bitten in the butt by snakes launched from Anko sleeves while Naruto was making a rude gesture with it. Most of the Special Jounin's techniques involved scales and things that slithered. Her hand to hand fighting style seemed to involve almost unnaturally fluid movement with sudden strikes that seemed to almost always find their way underneath her opponent's guard striking with a surprising amount of force. Even her jutsus were like that. She evaded most attacks by smoothly moving just barely out of the way and she attacked with her jutsus suddenly, just like a striking snake.
As the battle progressed each of them had been bitten or wrapped in the coils of a snake. Naruto seemed to get the worst of it either way, because he was constantly taunting Anko or because he was almost always the first to rush in. Sakura found that it was the perfect distraction and when Naruto was either blown away or jumping out of the way she would choose that moment to strike. Hinata seemed to agree as she started doing the same.
It was Sakura had to admit, a very good strategy. Naruto was nothing if not durable. He took the biggest beatings and managed to be the first of them to get back up. Though, Sakura also had to admit that he was pretty quick. He managed to dodge many of Anko's counter attacks, particularly after he had seen them a few times. Sakura even found his taunting proved to be useful. Not only did it draw Anko's attention to him, but it also allowed Hinata and her to have time to recover and setup to follow him when he attacked.
Anko seemed to agree with Sakura's assessment of their tactics, and gave it the best complement she could. She shifted tactics. When possible she'd try to force Naruto into Sakura and Hinata's path. At one point she snatched the loudmouth out of the air with snakes from her sleeve and swung him at his teammates.
He ended up on top of both of his teammates. Anko watched, amused with her handiwork as the three shinobi began to slowly disentangle themselves when the obnoxious one's hand found it's way onto the quiet one's crotch. He jumped up and held his hand like it was scalded, immediately apologizing profusely to the quiet one while the loud one started yelling at him.
Some of the more vicious jounin would have taken the opportunity to attack during this distraction, but Anko knew a trap when she saw one. The boy had already proven how tricky he was. He usually took point, attacking first to distract for his teammates. The first few times he'd just run in and she'd batted him aside. But then he'd started with the tricks. No sooner than she'd knock him aside and begin fending off his teammates then he or one of his clones would attack her from behind, or above or even below. Thank goodness for Kawarimi /Substitution/. This was definitely another trick. No guy could ever be that sorry for groping a girl! Especially since the girl in question obviously wanted to jump his bones. Unfortunately for him, her eyes and bare forehead showed she was a Hyuuga, and from their main house, so that wasn't going to happen.
Anko was expecting it, so she was easily able to dodge, when Sakura launched Naruto at her. The Special Jounin was impressed, the blow looked so real. Then it occurred to her it might be real. She'd originally laughed when they had the only boy on the team running point. It was a little sexist to think that because he was a boy he could take more punishment, but after seeing him just shake off some of the things she'd sent at him she was impressed. And she had to give him credit; he was quick. After seeing her moves a few times he started to be able to avoid them annoyingly often.
All in all she was impressed. She hadn't realized that Jiraiya-sama had trained a team since the Fourth's, but he did a wonderful job, they worked like a well-oiled machine.
Sakura rushed after Naruto screaming his name. Anko, knowing it was a trap tensed, ready to counter when the pink haired girl reached her, but to her surprise she ran right past and when she got to her teammate began to pummel him. Despite her suspicions she couldn't help but be impressed at boy's ability to dodge as well as take punishment. Then she began to cringe when she saw the girl's ferocious power taking its toll on the poor kid. At first she would have advised him to let her hit him a couple of times to get it out of her system, but seeing how battered the pleading boy had become without satisfying the girl's fury she had to acquiesce that he had the right idea. Don't get hit in this instance seemed to be synonymous with don't get killed
"I'm sorry," a quiet voice said from behind. Anko hadn't realized she'd been gawking and cursed herself for being so easily distracted in battle as she whipped around to face her remaining opponent.
"Sometimes they get that way," Hinata continued after righting her self from her bow. "I tried to tell her that it was obviously an accident, but s-she…" Hinata knew that she couldn't stop her teammate, but that didn't make what she was witnessing any easier.
Anko was shocked; she'd expected a blow to the head while she had her back turned or some debilitating Hyuuga technique. "Well you can't let a guy get away with that kind of thing even on accident, or he might try it again." Anko tried to appear as if she'd forgotten all about the fight and was distracted by the young lady next to her while she kept a close eye on both her and the two fighting teammates that were running around the training area now.
"Naruto-kun would never do something like that!" Hinata was as insistent as her shyness allowed.
"Just because you like him, doesn't mean he's perfect." Anko replied stealing a casual glance toward the still bickering teammates.
"I-I-I know he's not perfect," Hinata chose to ignore the first part of Anko's statement as best she could. "He never had parents, and most of the adults won't pay attention to him, so he doesn't have very good manners." Hinata spoke slowly and hesitantly. "He can say things that sound thoughtless, but he's only trying to help. He doesn't like to hurt people or for people to be sad…"
Anko was taken aback. "He sure pulled a lot of pranks for someone who doesn't like to hurt people." Hinata's description certainly hadn't fit with the loud boy Anko remembered.
"He never hurt anyone with those pranks," Hinata was quick to answer. "He just wanted people to see him… It feels so empty when no one sees you…"
Listening to Hinata's voice waver as she described Naruto, Anko could tell that she'd had it rough. Anko remembered what it was like to be alone, how empty she felt. If it hadn't been for the Fourth, she didn't know how she would have made it. Then the Fourth had died and she'd had no one left. And this girl seemed to only have a loud boy that hardly noticed her.
While Anko was revisiting the demons of her past, Hinata was screwing up her courage. "Anko-san, will you train me?"
"Huh?" Anko asked surprised as she fell back to reality.
Nervous, but unwilling to back down now that she'd asked; Hinata bowed formally. "I would be greatly honored if you would accept me as your apprentice, and teach me your techniques."
A loud crash drew Anko's attention back to the two bickering teammates in the middle of Hinata's request. Both of them were moving faster, Naruto was yelling his apologies out louder and Sakura's fists were doing even more landscaping. "Sure," Anko replied distractedly as she once again tried to casually prepare for whatever trap these three had planned.
Her training in decorum prevented her from showing it, but Hinata was elated. She had expected to be grilled with questions and have to convince Anko-san to train her. Hinata said nothing as she waited for her new Sensei to determine how they would proceed, but after several long moments of uncomfortable silence she spoke up. "Uh…Anko-sensei…when will we start?" she asked hesitantly.
"Wait a minute," Anko looked surprised. "You're really serious about this?"
"Yes," Hinata's voice was determined now and her posture rigid.
"So, this isn't some kind of trick to get me to lower my guard so one of you can get me while I'm not paying attention?"
"No." Hinata was a little surprised by the question.
"So they really fight like that?" Anko gestured to the pair whose fight was finally beginning to slow down.
"Uh-huh," Hinata replied quietly, not sure how to answer that question.
"They must not get along very well."
"They're actually very close."
Anko wasn't sure if she could hear wistfulness in the girl's voice or not. "Uh-huh," was all she could think to say. "So why do you want me to train you?"
"Well, you see, my teammates are determined to bring back their friend Uchiha Sasuke and I though that if I learned some of the techniques that Orochimaru was teaching him, then I could help them." When Anko didn't respond, Hinata continued. "And…well…I want to learn to move like you do."
"Like I do?" Anko was surprised.
"You dodge with really small movements and it's hard to see your attacks coming. They're very quick and slip under everyone's guard."
"But, what about Jyuuken?" Anko interrupted.
"It's just as useless as any other style if you can't hit your opponent," Hinata was surprised at her boldness, and was glad her father hadn't heard her say that. "I think that if I could fight like you do, it would make my Jyuuken better."
Anko, didn't know how to take that. She didn't know much about the Hyuuga Jyuuken, they kept most of the details very quiet, but she'd never heard of one of them learning another style to try to improve it. She'd never even heard of one of them trying to improve it at all. They usually acted like it was perfect and couldn't be improved. Anko didn't know how to respond, but fortunately she didn't have to.
"You're gonna train with the crazy woman!"
The sound of Naruto's yell coming from right behind her nearly caused Anko to jump out of her skin. Anko spun around to face where the loud genin's voice had come from and placed her hands on her hips. "My name is Mitarashi Anko…" Anko's yell faltered as she looked side to side to find the source of the noise.
"That's great!" Naruto's excited cheer came from behind her again. "You'll be the scariest girl ever!" Anko turned around to find Naruto standing right in front of her new apprentice. The rambunctious boy was a little too close to her to be gesturing as excitedly as he was. Hinata's arms were held tightly in front of her chest as she leaned back slightly and blushed brightly. Anko was thinking the girl obviously didn't have very high standards for sweet talk when she heard Naruto continue.
"When we meet enemies you'll just say something like: 'I just love the smell of fresh blood in the morning.'" Naruto did his best to pantomime Anko's sultry voice, but he didn't do any better than he had with Sakura's.
Unfortunately Anko picked up on Naruto's antics a little better than Sakura had. "Your voice acting skills leave much to be desired," Anko's voice seemed to drip out of her mouth as she pressed herself against Naruto's back. "Perhaps you'd do better if I shortened your vocal chords a little." Anko wiped the flat of a kunai /knife/ across Naruto's throat for emphasis.
"See! Just like that!" Naruto didn't seem phased by the knife at his throat. "You'll say something like that and everyone will just run away!"
"I'll be teaching her how to fight scary not just act it." Anko sounded annoyed about the slight on her fighting skills, though in truth she was more upset about running into another blond punk she couldn't scare. "Besides I don't think she has it in her to be mean."
"You haven't seen her fight when she's angry." Naruto said excitedly from his new position facing Anko. She hadn't even seen him move, and there was the same tingling feeling as when the fourth would get out of her holds! Anko was so shocked that she missed the first half of the boy's rant. But then she realized that the boy and the fourth both had the same teacher, so it's only natural that the boy would know some of his moves.
"… and her skin looks like it's glowing and hair whips around her head, and you can see the chakra around her fists and she's so fast…"
Anko grinned at the antics of the young man in front of her before she interrupted his babbling. "Then maybe she'll be the first one to have what it takes."
"She'll have what it takes and more," Naruto interrupted Anko's attempt at a sinister laugh and the annoyance showed on her face. "You just make sure that you teach her the good stuff!"
Anko just smirked at the finger Naruto had pointed at her and turned to face her new pupil. "Hyuuga Hinata!" Anko smiled again when her voice brought the young kunoichi to attention. "Meet me here tomorrow, an hour before dawn." The Special Jounin's words were still echoing in the clearing as the smoke concealing her departure faded away.
Anko had been a harsh taskmistress once she'd discovered Hinata's predicament. She had initially blown off Naruto's warning to train her well. But Anko was a jounin and more than capable of gathering information, especially when all it entailed was verifying what was flying around the Konoha gossip circles. A quick check of some public records was all it took to find Hinata's original sensei. Then all it took was a few drinks to get all the answers she needed. Who would have guessed that Kurenai was a featherweight when it came to sake?
Anko had shown up early the first day of training to find Hinata already practicing by striking a tree. She had originally thought she could get away with just teaching the girl a few jutsus, but now she knew Hinata's situation. She knew the kunoichi would never accept just that and Anko knew in her heart that she'd never be able to live with herself if she did just that. Why did the girl have to remind her so much of herself? At least she had that Naruto brat. He'd better not ever let Hinata down, and for good measure he better clue up fast or else, Anko thought. At least she knew she could never let Hinata down like her sensei had let her down.
They had trained for three days. Each morning started early with drills and forms that she'd drilled into Hinata until Anko could barely stand. They'd take a long lunch and Anko would rest as much as she could while she taught Hinata the two most basic jutsus of the style Orochimaru had taught her. Then once the sun started to set they'd fight until they could barely drag themselves home.
Hinata had come a long way in just three days; about as far as Anko would have guessed the girl would have in as many weeks. But then Anko thought she would have had some free time in those three days as well. But at current rate it looked like Anko wouldn't have any free time until the Chuunin exams that started in about a month were done. That was if Hinata could pass the test.
If Hinata could pass the test, she'd be the first Anko had seen other than herself. She'd been asked to teach her skills to people several times before and each time she'd secretly laugh when they failed the all-important test. She usually made her victim take the test before she'd teach them even the basics, but Hinata was the first she'd actually wanted to pass.
She had no doubt that Orochimaru had put the Uchiha through the test. Nor did she doubt that he passed, eventually. However she did suspect that his first attempt would have been amusing to watch.
He could have his Uchiha though, Anko though. If Hinata can pass the test, she'll one day surpass the 'genius Uchiha,' not because of her blood limit, but because of her determination and incredible stamina. Orochimaru always did under-evaluate the value of determination and hard work. He always picked the ones that it seemed everything came easy to. When he had apprenticed her, she had thought he might have changed his mind. But now she sometimes wondered if he'd abandoned her, because he'd realized how hard she'd had to work for what she'd achieved.
Anko had ordered Hinata to sleep-in today. She knew if she just set a later meeting time, Hinata would just practice on her own beforehand. She'd been that young once herself and Anko knew even then, that people's bodies need time to rest.
Hinata had come far enough now that Anko wanted to start having her practice her new techniques against someone with a different fighting style. She'd wanted her to practice against her female teammate so she wouldn't be tempted to hold back, but Tsunade-sama had insisted on keeping Sakura working in the hospital for the day. And it was just her luck that Jiraiya-sama had been busy, so Naruto was free.
Anko however had never been so surprised in her life. She'd expected Naruto to say something rude to her, so she wasn't surprised when the first thing Naruto said when he arrived was that she had better have been training Hinata well. She'd expected something like that, so she just grinned and told him that he'd have to fight her to find out.
She wasn't even surprised when he'd turned around and ignored her to give Hinata some kind of pep talk. She figured he probably always had to do that to get a good fight out of the girl that unbeknownst to him would probably rather drag him into a secluded place in the forest than fight him.
No, what shocked her speechless was watching them fight. They fought each other like a cat and a dog locked in the same cage. Anko had expected Hinata to have trouble trying to hurt her crush, but once they started fighting she seemed to want to crush him for real. She gave the boy absolutely no quarter, and he in return did the same. They were unrelenting. The only way you could tell that they weren't blood enemies trying to destroy the other's very soul was the way they would occasionally step back when they'd scored a particularly powerful hit and let the other get up. And of course the stream of compliments that would flow out of Naruto's mouth whenever Hinata managed to knock him down.
It had been a long time since Anko had seen anyone fight so fiercely. Usually when two high level ninjas fought the battle would start on a fully physical level, but escalate into something that was as much a battle of wits as much as physical power. Incredibly powerful jutsus would be used, countered or avoided and another used back. Those battles would become as much a chess match as a physical battle; a beautifully deadly chess match, but still a chess match. But these two both favored simple ninjutsu that complimented their taijutsu styles. And their jutsus fit into their fighting styles perfectly.
Naruto's fighting style couldn't be described as graceful, but it was definitely efficient. He moved with precision and power. And he moved fast, very fast. But where Naruto's moves were rough and hard, Hinata's were smooth and flowed together. She moved gracefully and when she stuck it was precise. She was still in the process of learning and adapting her new fighting style into her old one, so she would shift between styles, sometimes smoothly, and sometimes not. But what came as a shock to Anko was Hinata's speed. She'd never seen her apprentice move so fast, not even when fighting her. She kept up with Naruto speed for speed. And when Naruto got faster, so did she.
Anko lost track of time as she watched them fight. When the fight finally ran down, Anko had no idea of how long it had lasted. But now that it was over she had a new respect for her apprentice's power now that she'd seen her fighting with everything she had. And she could tell that both of them had fought at their maximum. The way they had twisted, contorted and leapt away from danger and the way they would take a blow just for the chance to try and hit the other showed without doubt how desperately they had fought.
It took Anko a minute to get to the two resting teenagers from where she'd had to move back to keep a safe distance from the fight. When she got there Naruto had already started in on his verbal barrage, though he was much quieter than normal and she had to get next to them before she could hear it.
"I told you that she'd make you scary…with those snakes coming out of your arms…you're one of the scariest girls I know and the strongest!"
Naruto's face had been split by an enormous grin, but Hinata didn't seem to know how to take it. Was she too scary for him? He said she was strong, but did he like strong girls, would he ever like her? Oblivious to her dilemma Naruto waved and announced that he was off to lunch.
Anko just chuckled at the emotions playing across her apprentice's face and waited for the girl's teammate to walk out of earshot. "Don't worry, he said you were scary." Anko couldn't help but laugh at Hinata's questioning look. "He liked it," Anko grinned at the girl until she started to relax. "But you've got bigger problems than boys right now young lady!" Hinata found her Sensei's sudden change in demeanor frightening and didn't even notice the step back she took.
"What was that?" Anko yelled gesturing angrily toward where the bulk of the sparing had taken place. "Why haven't I ever seen you fight like that?"
Hinata took another step back as her arms wrapped around herself. "Well, uh… I don't…"
"You mean to tell me you can only fight your hardest when you're trying to impress some boy you like!?" Anko's yell interrupted the girl's stammering.
"No!" Hinata yelled out suddenly.
"Don't lie to me, I know you like him."
"No, I mean yes, I mean that's not what I meant!" Hinata stuttered out frantically.
"Then why haven't I seen you fight that hard before?" Anko's voice, though now quiet, was not friendly.
"It's just that if I don't fight with him that hard, I can't help him get stronger," Hinata said to the ground unwilling to look up at her Sensei. When no reply was forth coming Hinata looked up to see Anko raising an eyebrow. "I just couldn't stand it if he got hurt," Hinata swallowed hard, "or died, because I didn't help him get stronger."
Anko was taken aback at the girl's logic. "You mean you can fight him as hard as you can to help him get stronger, but you can't fight like that to make yourself stronger?"
"I just don't want to hurt anyone," was Hinata's barely audible reply.
"Despite our pulling our punches during training accidents will happen, but a shinobi fights with everything they have to protect what's precious to them. If you can't practice with everything you've got to make yourself strong enough to protect what you love with your own two hands, then you have no business wearing that Hitai-ate that you've casually strung around your neck!" Anko turned and began to walk away, but yelled back one last thing to her quivering apprentice. "I'll be back here at the usual time the day after tomorrow, if you're not ready to fight with everything that you have to protect what you love, then don't show up."
Neither Anko as she walked away nor Hinata as she stood trembling noticed the old man chuckling at them as he watched them through his telescope. Nor could they hear his hoot when something caught his eye and he turned that telescope back toward the Konoha Bath Houses.
Looking back Hinata couldn't believe how she'd gotten here. She had spent much of the day Anko had given her crying and training, often at the same time. She didn't think she could ever do what Anko-sensei had asked. Every time she tried to hit someone her arms would freeze up on her and she'd worry about how badly she'd hurt that person. No matter what she did it just wouldn't go away. She was barely able to fight Naruto for real.
It was during that day that she had run into Naruto, literally. And it had been his advice that had given her what she needed to meet Anko in the training area the next morning. She didn't remember how he'd maneuvered her to sitting down next to him, but he did and before Hinata knew it she was pouring her heart out about how Anko-sensei had told her she shouldn't be a ninja.
Naruto had been furious. "Where is she?" Naruto had bellowed. "I'll tell her that there isn't a stronger ninja in all of Konoha than Hyuuga Hinata, because she always fights to protect her precious people!"
Somehow Hinata could tell that Naruto wasn't just saying that to cheer her up, he really meant it. And his unfaltering faith in her crushed her. "How can you say that?" she asked through a new wave of tears.
Naruto didn't pause for a second. "Because I saw you fight Neji, and Kabuto, and you saved Konohamaru."
"B…but we failed our mission." Hinata sobbed.
"So, you still saved him didn't you?" Naruto didn't seem to have the slightest concern about the failed mission. "Now where is Anko-teme, I'll tell her…"
"No Naruto-kun," Hinata yelled out. "It was my fault." Her admission was barely audible, but it stopped Naruto from storming off.
"How?" Naruto asked, clearly not believing.
"When she saw us fight," Hinata replied hesitantly. From the look on Naruto's face she could tell he didn't understand, but it was hard for her to admit. "I couldn't fight her like I fought you."
Hinata couldn't look at Naruto after the admission, so she didn't have any warning when she felt him sit back down beside her. "Of course not Hinata, you don't like to hurt people." His voice was calm and quiet. It soothed her. "I like that about you."
The words shocked her, sending a jolt down her spine. She gasped and turned to face him. She had to know if it really had been Naruto that had said those words.
Naruto, oblivious to the full nature of what was going on just chuckled at her reaction. "What?" Naruto asked with a grin. "Did you think I only liked you because you're pretty?"
Never in her wildest dreams had she dared to hope that Naruto would really find her pretty, let alone actually tell her so. The shock was more than she could handle, so it took her a few moments to catch up with what Naruto was saying.
"…I have a hard time when I'm fighting you or Sakura-chan, because I don't want to hurt one of my friends" Naruto's voice had sounded pained. "But when I thought they were going to give you that seal and there was nothing I could do, I felt so helpless, like everything I had ever done was for nothing. That's why I took that bet, and that's what I remember when I'm fighting with you guys. I don't want to ever feel so helpless when one of my precious people needs me."
The weight of everything Naruto had said had been a bit much for her. She sat there contemplating what he had said for some time. So long in fact, that when she had next become aware of her surroundings Naruto was gone. She hadn't heard him tell her to do her best or that he knew she could do it as he left. She sat in that same spot contemplating what he had said for the rest of the day and into the night.
She berated herself for forgetting the danger Naruto had put himself in to protect her from her family's cursed seal. She'd been so happy to be able to spend time with Naruto recently that she had forgotten all about why it had happened. Somewhere during that night of soul searching she found the courage and the determination to try and change herself again.
Hinata had arrived early the appointed morning tired from a nearly sleepless night, but with her heart full of determination. The training had been even harder on her emotionally than when she had to teach herself to fight Naruto without holding back. But when she wanted to hold back she'd remember how much Naruto was counting on her to be strong.
Anko had been satisfied, but now she wasn't so sure it had been such a good thing that Naruto had helped her. She definitely missed him now now. Not that she usually slept in the same bed as the young man she admired, but she wasn't in her bed at all. If she were alone in her bed then she would be fine. But she wasn't in her bed.
Hinata lay in a bed in the living room of her sensei's home. She had been taken there when she had become too exhausted to fight. Her sensei fed her a simple meal made of mostly instant foods and sent her to bed. The bed wasn't particularly comfortable, but she could sleep if her problems were just being alone in a strange, uncomfortable bed in a strange, dark house. But Hinata wasn't alone, and it was definitely the snakes, bugs and other poisonous looking, creepy, crawly things moving, slithering and crawling all over her body that were keeping her awake.
Anko-Sensei had said that her jutsus required the person performing them to lack fear. Supposedly the bugs and snakes and crawly things, her teacher had summoned wouldn't bite her unless they smelled fear, but it was becoming very difficult for the young shinobi to hold back her fear.
If only Naruto were here now! He'd be able to give her courage. He'd say something wise that would help her gather her courage. And Naruto would definitely tell her to do her best. He might even say that he knew she could do it. Maybe he would even put his hand on her shoulder like he had done that one time. Hinata could feel his warm touch sliding over her shoulder. Then maybe he'd…and his hands…she could feel it…and she'd… tease…"Oh, Naruto," she moaned…
When she woke up in the hospital she knew she'd failed. It took her a moment to remember the events of the previous evening. She woke up in the middle of the night disoriented with a strange feeling of dread. Then she felt things slithering and creeping all over her skin. She screamed. That was when she felt the sharp pain of things biting her all over her body.
She found Anko-sense sitting by her bedside in the hospital. She told her that she had done well to even be able to get to sleep, but she'd have to master her fear even in her sleep. Then her master had left her to her ponderings on how she could learn how to be fearless even while asleep.
Hinata's training continued the next day. She was told that she could only ever take the fear test, Hinata didn't think that name adequately described it, three times. But she wouldn't be able to continue her apprenticeship if she failed the second time until she managed to pass the third time. Anko-Sensei said the third time would kill her if she failed. So Hinata trained diligently while trying to figure out how she could overcome her fear before the next time.
Not long after her stay in the hospital Hinata found herself at team Alpha's meeting place with Sakura waiting for Naruto. She and Sakura had come to the meeting spot together from Sakura's house. She had hosted what she referred to as a slumber party through the weekend, which had in attendance all the girls from their rookie year as well as Tenten from her cousin's team and Temari who was visiting from the Sand Village to help prepare for the upcoming chuunin exams.
The girls had mostly talked about clothes and boys, though they had also talked about Hinata and Sakura's prospects at the chuunin exams. Their opinions had been favorable about that at least. Hinata really didn't feel she had much to contribute to their discussion. She knew about the appropriate attire for many formal occasions, but Hinata's training had little bearing on the types of fashion these girls discussed. They talked about how various articles of clothing complimented various features or other parts of their anatomy as well as how they affected the boys.
Hinata didn't say much, nor could she easily follow many of their conversations. But she was happy that she had people that were friends enough to share with her despite her quiet nature. Though they definitely didn't just let her sit quietly. They did anything they could think of to find out about what she saw in Naruto and what she felt about him. And when they couldn't get coherent answers from her they talked for her; giving her suggestion after suggestion on how she could win him over. They argued with each other over which were best and which would and wouldn't work while each tried to cajole her into following their advice.
But that wasn't the most embarrassing part. Sakura had asked her about how well her Byakugan could see through clothes. Apparently she'd wanted to know ever since Hinata had seen the shuriken in the armor of the ninja they'd fought on their first mission. Once the other girls heard the question they'd started all talking at once. Someone suggested that she liked Naruto because she'd seen a certain part of his body. They even asked her how big it was! Then they'd started talking about Naruto-kun's stamina. Hinata didn't think she'd ever been so embarrassed in her life. She was very grateful when Tenten finally rescued her by telling everyone that according to Neji the byakugan could only see hard objects underneath a person's clothes.
Sakura was pleased with herself this morning. The night before she and the other girls had finally got Hinata to wear one of the new outfits they had gotten for her. Hinata had put her jacket on over it, so part of it was wasted, but the coat didn't cover Hinata's legs and she was certain that Naruto would have to notice Hinata now. She bet Naruto would be walking behind her all day.
Sakura felt kind of bad that they had never included Hinata before. She was quiet, but good to have around. It had definitely been nice to have her and Naruto to talk about so the whole evening wasn't filled with the girls trying to convince her to give up on Sasuke-kun, though the other girls hadn't let that slide completely. They hadn't spent as much time but they had been more vicious about it. Sakura hadn't been the only one who was surprised when Hinata had come to her defense. She said that Sakura owed it to her teammate not to give up on him. But the shock hadn't stopped the other girls. They called him all sorts of terrible things; they said that if he was a traitor he was scum and didn't deserve anything from his friends. Sakura had heard enough by then and yelled at them. She told them that people that broke the rules and didn't follow orders are scum, but if she gave up on her friends she would be even less than that! The other girls had wanted to say that was exactly what Sasuke had done, but they knew that they wouldn't be able to convince Sakura that giving up on Sasuke wasn't the same thing. After listening to Sakura's heart felt explanation they weren't quite sure they could convince themselves.
Not wanting to continue along her depressing avenue of thought Sakura went back to mentally berating her teammate for being late. They finally had a teacher that was on time most of the time and now Naruto has to go and be late. "Where is that idiot?" Sakura mumbled after she'd worked herself up.
"Please don't say that," Hinata said quietly. She knew Sakura really didn't mean it, but so many people said terrible things about her Naruto-kun that it still hurt to hear it from her other teammate. "I'm sure he has a good reason," Hinata finished uncertainly. In the past she wouldn't have been able to speak out against one of her teammates, but she hoped that it would be like the party last night where everyone could go back to being friendly with each other even if they had a disagreement.
Before Sakura could respond to her statement, they both heard a voice calling to them. "Sorry I'm late." Hinata would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Naruto-kun!
"What took you so long?" Sakura yelled at her teammate before he had gotten all the way over to them. Naruto didn't answer immediately, but when he stopped a few feet from them he put one hand behind his head and laughed nervously. He seemed a little bit embarrassed. "Well, you see the people at Hinata's house wouldn't tell me she wasn't there, so I got stuck waiting for her a while before the finally yelled at me to leave."
Sakura's face, which had been twisted in anger suddenly started to go slack. Her jaw opened and her face seemed to melt until she suddenly got control of herself, broke into a grin, and let out a girlish squeal.
The sudden change in demeanor startled Naruto and when he heard Sakura's Sasuke squeal he turned around with a jump to find out who she was squealing over. For an instant it was just like when Sasuke was with them. He didn't see Sasuke, nor did he see any other boy that Sakura could be squealing over. But he was so absorbed in his search that he didn't hear Sakura yell, "You go Hinata!" nor did he hear Hinata apologize for his treatment by her family.
Training that day had consisted of a boring mission that was supposed to improve their teamwork. They had finished fairly early and broke apart just before lunchtime leaving Hinata and Naruto walking together. They were getting close to the Icharaku Ramen stand when they met the Konohamaru corps. Naruto greeted each of the three of them by name and invited them to come to have lunch with him at his favorite ramen stand. They agreed readily, however they had to coax Hinata into accepting Naruto's invitation to come too.
Not more than a year after Naruto had left, the Hokage had assigned several minor missions to individual Genin and Chuunin. These ninja were to take a group of three academy students with them to help their training experience by giving them the opportunity to practice some of the basic survival skills of shinobi in a relatively safe environment. Hinata had gotten a simple courier mission and had taken Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi with her. The client had claimed it was a simple delivery that he didn't have the time to make, but they had been attacked by enemy ninja.
The ninja had abducted Konohamaru and demanded the scroll in exchange for his life. Knowing that the scroll was too important to hand over if it was important enough for enemy ninja to attack, Hinata had used her Byakugan to ensure they weren't followed and hid a crying Udon and Moegi and used her blood-limit to find where they were holding Konohamaru. She'd taken them by surprise, but one of them, a kunoichi had been stronger than the others. Hinata had fought her with everything she had. Hinata got knocked down several times, but she refused to give up, until eventually the enemy kunoichi had fled. Hinata had been so badly injured that Konohamaru had to carry her to find Udon and Moegi. Then the three of them had nursed her and carried her back to Konoha. When the ANBU had finally been dispatched the ninja she'd defeated were gone.
That was how she had met the Konohamaru corps. After the mission they'd treated her like a big sister. All of them missed Naruto, if in different ways. They'd played with her much like they had Naruto. So she found it easy to be self confident around them, even with Naruto around. So when they had announced that they'd become genin and had gone on their first mission Hinata found herself joining in the collective excitement and getting louder than normal with everyone else.
Naruto and Hinata were excited for their friends, but they weren't satisfied with the types of missions Genins started out on. Naruto had tried to console them telling the most important thing about their first missions was learning teamwork.
The three new genin hadn't been mollified, so the five of them had found themselves in one of Konoha's training areas. Naruto had suggested that the four of them attempt to steal a scroll from him, but Konohamaru insisted that if he and his teammates needed to learn teamwork then they needed to learn to work together as just the three of them. Naruto and Hinata had acquiesced but Naruto insisted he wouldn't go easy on them.
Not going easy on them had entailed a lot of silliness from tickling to wet-willies to a lot of Naruto brand silliness with the Kage-Bunshin Technique. The new genin had attacked Naruto while he had his pants down only to be counter attacked by the real Naruto and Hinata who had been hiding in the trees above. That one had really embarrassed Hinata. Eventually they caught on and were very suspicious of finding Naruto alone, so Naruto had the clones he used as bait turn into Hinata. Naruto even let them steal a scroll that when they opened it, it wrapped itself around Konohamaru. Udon and Moegi had gotten a serious tickling after that one.
In the end Hinata and Naruto had let them get the scroll. Naruto had insisted that they keep it. He said they'd want it and winked conspiratorially as they parted ways, Naruto escorting Hinata home.
Hinata happily walked beside her Naruto-kun. The sky darkening as the sun descended toward the horizon put Hinata in a romantic mood. She'd had a great time and wanted to thank Naruto-kun. But she wasn't sure what she should say. It wasn't like they'd been on a date really, not with Konohamaru and company hanging around, but she'd really enjoyed her time with Naruto. So, unable to decide what to officially thank him for she decided to try a safer course for conversation: curiosity. "What was in that scroll you gave Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi?"
"It was a jutsu scroll, Ero-Senin made me make that tells how to do Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu and how to combine it with Henge no jutsu and it has all the ways I could think of to use them."
"W-was that your first scroll of you're personal Ninpou?" Hinata asked, growing even more impressed with her Naruto-kun for having developed enough of his own unique style of ninja arts to record it in a scroll. She'd been so heavily trained in her family's techniques and style she didn't feel she had a style of her own. Everything she could do had been someone else's before her. She'd never been given the opportunity to try and adapt it or try anything new.
"I guess." Naruto didn't appear to be particularly impressed with himself. There was a time when he would have been very pleased with himself and would have touted the style as proof of his greatness and his own school of ninpou. But he had important people to protect and a friend that needed his help so without a rival that kind of self-aggrandizement wasn't so important to him anymore.
"Why did you give it to them?" Hinata said sounding and feeling odd as a wave of a strange new emotion passed over her. She almost felt greedy. She'd wanted that scroll; not for herself, but to one day give to the children she hoped she and Naruto would have, so she could show them how great their father was. The thought of those children however was enough to make her blush.
Naruto didn't seem to notice how strange her question was. Or if he did he didn't comment on it. "Well I wanted to give them a gift…" His voice trailed off in embarrassment. "But I didn't know that they'd just graduated. So I didn't have anything to give them…and well when I had just graduated a new technique would have been just what I would have wanted the most."
Hinata knew about Naruto's unselfish and giving nature, it was one of the things that attracted her to him, but something inside her just wouldn't let it go. "I mean wouldn't you want to save that for your children," Hinata said a little embarrassedly, perhaps because she'd almost said our children.
"Well…" Naruto began slowly; the subject was a bit personal to him. "Hinata…" Naruto stalled while he tried to decide what to tell her. "I'm not really sure if I'll ever have kids." Naruto decided that she was as close a friend as he had so he could tell her.
"The F…" Hinata shushed her outburst by placing her hand over her mouth. After quickly looking side to side she continued. "I-I-t doesn't make it so you're not able…?" Hinata was too embarrassed to finish her question, especially with the way Naruto was squinting questioningly at her. She only managed a few nervous sounds as she moved her hands in front of herself and tapped her index fingers together.
"No!" Naruto said a little too loudly once he figured out what Hinata was asking. He was too nervous to notice the way Hinata's shoulders slumped in relief or hear her sigh over his quiet babbling "At least I don't think so. I'd have to ask Tsunade-ba-chan…" Naruto muttered quietly. He didn't want to sound like a pervert. "He just does a good job of keeping most of the girls away." Naruto finally managed to say normally and with only a slight blush.
The two fell into a nervous silence. Hinata didn't know how to respond to Naruto's statement. She wanted to tell him not to give up; that there was a girl out there just for him. But she didn't think she could tell him that it was her. And Hinata definitely didn't want some other girl to capture his heart. But she didn't want Naruto to give up hope; she wanted him to be happy.
While Hinata was trapped in her internal struggle, Naruto was revisiting some poignant memories. He and Ero-senin had stayed in a village for a few months while Ero-senin had been teaching him how to gather information from people. The people had been really friendly to them and there had been this one girl he kept running into that always used to blush and smile at him, but quickly look away, kind of like how Hinata used to act. Ero-senin has said that the girl liked him. He really didn't know how to react to that or Ero-senin's constant teasing. But it had felt good to think that someone could actually be attracted to him. Then after the attack it had all changed. He'd fought to save them, but as soon as they had seen the changes on his body when he had to use the Kyuubi's chakra they'd all shunned him. Even that girl had run away from him! That's why he'd been so happy when Hinata & Sakura didn't abandon him when they saw.
Naruto left Hinata at the front gate with a quiet goodbye. It made her sad to see the so often loud shinobi so quiet. After eating a simple dinner alone she found herself in a wooded area not far from her family's estates where she had wrapped some blankets around a tree so she could train without disturbing the peace of her family's home. She had been so thoroughly engrossed in her thoughts about what Naruto had told her that she hadn't realized where she had been going.
She reached out and touched the tree she had spent so much time practicing her Jyuuken on. She'd started coming here less often when she started training with Naruto-kun and hadn't been back since she started training with Anko-Sensei. Hoping that the physical activity would help clear her mind she began striking the tree for the first time in her new style. That was where Anko found her over an hour later moving with a serpentine grace around the tree striking it with her fingers and occasionally her palms.
"Try and keep your feet closer together in that stance and point your toes farther inward so you can spin around faster," Anko corrected Hinata's movements sighing to herself. She's spent her entire day running errands, cleaning and all the other things she couldn't do because she spent so much time training this girl and here she was jumping right back into it on her day off!
Hinata backed away from the tree, striking it once and kicking it as she moved back into position to perform the move again with Anko-sensei's prescribed changes. This time she did indeed whip around faster. Not sure what to do she just continued her improvised movements around the tree.
"Didn't you have training with your team today?" Anko asked as she watched her apprentice continue to dance around the improvised training post striking it from every angle.
"Yes." Hinata didn't even spare her sensei a glance as she continued to practice.
"And it's over now?" Anko asked uncertainly
"Yes."
"Then haven't you done enough? Why don't you call it a day?
There was a long moment of silence, interrupted only by the sounds of flesh meeting wood and the flutter of clothing, before Hinata answered the question. "Naruto-kun wouldn't quit."
"Uh-huh." Anko didn't sound convinced. She suspected her apprentice's faith in the loudmouth's work ethic was probably based on something other than clinical observation. "So what do you see in him anyway?" Ando asked curiously.
Anko pretended not to notice the slight stumble in Hinata's movements and the slightly fearful look that flashed across her face. There was another pause where only the sound of Hinata's training could be heard. Anko almost thought that her apprentice wasn't going to answer her when the young girl finally spoke up. "He's strong and he works hard. He never gives up no matter what. And he can be an excellent shinobi and still be gentle and caring."
"Well, he's definitely a stronger ninja than I expected." Anko had to admit. "But I suspect you work much harder than he does." Hinata was after all probably the hardest working ninja that Anko had ever worked with.
"No." Hinata punctuated her statement with a flurry of strikes against the tree. "I've watched him ever since the academy…"
'So she was one of those girls,' Anko thought. Still, stalking is an important ninja skill.
"Everyone was against him even though he should have been a hero…"
"What are you talking about?" Anko asked, hesitantly interrupting her apprentice.
"I'm not permitted to discuss it," Hinata said as casually as possible trying to cover for her previous lapse.
"How did you find out?"
"An enemy Sound Ninja we encountered told us before he got away." Hinata answered through gritted teeth.
"You know you can't tell anyone…" Anko's voice was hesitant.
"The Hokage told me, but he's still the village's biggest hero, and the people that know should acknowledge it!" Hinata said angrily
"If you know what happened how can you say that?" Anko asked shocked. "The Fourth died to defeat that thing!"
"He didn't sacrifice as much as Naruto-kun did." Hinata stated it as simple fact.
"The Fourth gave up his life!" Anko was exasperated that someone could belittle the Fourth Hokage's sacrifice. "What did that brat ever give up?"
"The Fourth gave up his life, Naruto-kun…he had to give his life." Hinata answered amidst a renewed flurry of strikes to the tree. "Naruto had to live alone. He's been hated and scorned by nearly everyone he's known his whole life and he didn't even know why. But he never gave up. He always believed in himself and never gave up on his dreams even though things didn't come easy for him. He worked hard to be acknowledged by people for his skill and for what he's done and still almost no one does."
"I see…" Anko drew the words out slowly, now that she finally understood what the girl saw in him. "You know that he just hides his pain, he'd have to be without emotions to not be hurting."
"I know, but it's still more than I was able to do."
Those words hit Anko hard and the total silence when they were spoken told her that Hinata must have stopped. But before Anko could turn back to her the sounds picked up with a fury. It seemed the rumors were true. Anko had to turn back away lest the girl see the hatred she had for Hiashi on her face.
Not too far away two other young ninja could be found in a similar clearing lit only by the stars. Konohamaru was practicing controlling his Kage-Bunshins enough to get them to transform into various things, including nubile women. He didn't have enough chakra to make more than a few of them, so he had to be extra careful not to dispel them. The technique required more concentration than the boy currently had. His attention span didn't seem to be faring much better.
"Oi, Naruto-nii-san," Konohamaru called out after letting out a particularly disgruntled sigh when he failed to transform all of his Bunshins into rocks. "Why am I doing this again?" Konohamaru flopped down onto the ground. Each of his Bunshins looked tired. Most were panting, a couple sat down while two others leaned against trees, and one just bent over with his hands on his knees.
One of the sides of Naruto's lips quirked in the barest hint of a smirk as he took in the scene. But they quickly returned to the grimace that had been covering his face as he concentrated on his exercise. "I told you Konohamaru. Using henge combined with Kage-Bunshin is one of the most useful techniques there is." Naruto grunted out. "It's all in the scroll I gave you guys." Naruto grunted again as he concentrated on keeping control of the sphere of energy in his right hand as he tried desperately to form a matching one in his left.
"I mean why are we staying so late? I'm tired."
"Then go home, you need to make sure you get enough rest for tomorrow." Naruto said breathlessly as the spinning vortex in his had began to coalesce.
"Are you going home?" Konohamaru asked hopefully. He didn't seem to want to be outdone by Naruto.
"Not for a while," Naruto grunted as the vortex in his left hand became louder and more out of control.
"Why do you train so late?" Konohamaru stared in wonder at Naruto's pinched face as he tried to control his jutsu. He'd known that Naruto-nii-san worked hard, he'd seen the intensity of his training several times and Konohamaru still found it amazing. Naruto-nii-san was the one that had taught Konohamaru that there were no shortcuts to becoming Hokage. But this was the first time he'd really seen how much Naruto-nii-san trained.
"To protect the people that are important to me," Naruto said breathlessly after the spinning whirlwind dissipated, having failed to condense into a tight sphere like the one on his other hand.
"You've trained all day and everyone else has quit for the day."
"Hinata wouldn't quit," Naruto said simply and with the same surety that someone might say that the sun would rise in the east the next day.
"No, she wouldn't." Konohamaru said resignedly.
"It's all right Konohamaru, if you need to rest then rest." Naruto grunted out as the sphere in his right hand reappeared and the air became turbulent around his left. "It won't do you any good to keep training if it means you'll be too tired to train tomorrow… But I've got to train some more."
Not many days later Naruto found himself walking alone toward the training area he and his team used. He expected he'd find it empty as usual. When he was on the road with Ero-sensei they usually had to train somewhere that he could spy on girls while Naruto trained. It took a lot of effort to get the old pervert to help him train, but at least he was there. But now that they had a formal training ground Naruto usually had to train himself until the old man finally deemed to show up, if he even showed up at all. Rather than complain to himself about it Naruto was trying to decide what to do with his training when he noticed that the training area wasn't as empty as he'd anticipated.
No such luck, it wasn't his sensei. It was Hinata and after just one look he could tell that something was wrong. He didn't think it was one of their days to practice together and usually when Hinata was waiting for him she was twisting and swaying in her new fighting style with her hands flying out in all directions to attack imaginary opponents. But today she just sat there with her knees pulled up in front of her and her arms wrapped around them.
Naruto didn't consider himself very good at talking to girls so he just stopped where he was trying to figure out what to do. Deciding that maybe Hinata was just tired from all the training she does he decided to walk the rest of the way with a cheery smile on his face as if nothing was wrong.
When she didn't acknowledge him, Naruto plopped down noisily beside her. That got her attention. Hinata gasped and wiped at her eyes before she looked at him. "N-Naruto-kun," she sputtered out.
"Is it our day to practice together?" Naruto asked. He couldn't tell if the redness in her eyes was from crying or lack of sleep.
"N-no," Hinata replied nervously. She didn't know how to tell Naruto-kun what had happened. She couldn't bear for him to think less of her.
In response Naruto grinned mischievously. "So are you playing hooky from that crazy sensei?"
"No!" Hinata shook her head violently.
"Oh, I didn't mean to suggest you were lazy or anything." Naruto's voice was loud and little scared. He raised his hands up and shook them as if to ward off a blow. "I know you work very hard."
Naruto berated himself. He knew Hinata must have tons more discipline than he did. He almost never snuck out of training, but sometimes when it had just become too much he'd sneak away to relax or goof off somewhere. He felt stupid for thinking that Hinata might be as weak as him.
When no disappointed comment came Naruto looked up. Hinata never hit him or even yelled at him. When he did something wrong and upset her she just sighed and sounded disappointed. He really wished she'd just yell at him or hit him like Sakura-chan does. It would hurt, but when he made someone as nice as Hinata sad it was worse somehow.
He looked up and Hinata was grinning at him. It was that sincere smile of hers that he liked seeing so much. He didn't know what he'd done, so he just scratched the back of his head and smiled back. Then she just started giggling, she tried to stifle herself, but she didn't seem to be able to stop. Hinata wasn't like most of the girls he knew, which made her easier to understand. But she was still a girl and sometimes he didn't understand her at all.
Unsure of what to do Naruto just smiled at her until she stopped laughing. "So what're you doing here?" Naruto asked "Your sensei too lazy to train you today too?"
Hinata's once beaming face began to fall at that question and Naruto began to berate himself again for making her sad. "Sh-she's not my s-sensei anymore." Hinata seemed to be trying to hold back tears.
"What?!" Naruto bellowed. "What did she do this time? She can't just…"
"Naruto-kun!" Hinata's wasn't particularly loud, but somehow just raising her voice just a little bit stopped Naruto mid-rant. "I-it was my fault," Hinata continued softly. The silence after that statement was almost palpable. Just as Naruto was about to deny it, Hinata continued. "I failed her test. Anko-sensei says I can only take it one more time, but until I can pass the test she can't teach me anymore of her techniques."
"Oh, is that all?" Naruto sound completely unimpressed
"But, I don't think I can pass the test." Hinata said before Naruto could continue
"That's ok." Naruto exclaimed as he knelt down in front of his distraught teammate. "You don't need her techniques to be strong. You can be strong in your own way."
"B-but…" Hinata tried to interrupt, but Naruto wouldn't let her.
"Not all jutsus are suited for everybody. I can't do most genjutsu, because they don't use enough chakra."
"But all the time I spent…" Hinata began, but stopped when Naruto leaned forward and grabbed her hands.
"She's already taught you some great taijutsu." Naruto squeezed her hands gently and leaned back slowly letting her hands slip out of his before he continued. "If her other techniques won't work for you then you keep what you've learned and we'll find techniques that will for you."
"What about Sasuke?"
"I'm strong enough to deal with Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed as he leaned back and pumped his fist. "You just worry about being strong your way, not anybody else's. You'll show everyone the real strength of never giving up."
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata stammered out. She just couldn't seem to make him understand how terrible her failure was. And she didn't know why it was so important to her that she explain it. She didn't really want Naruto-kun to think any less of her. She didn't think she could bear it, but somehow she felt that if he found out later that it would be worse. Hinata was just too confused; she just couldn't concentrate. She had felt so terrible that she'd spent most of the night crying. And when she'd finally cry herself to sleep she'd wake up with terrible nightmares about her failure.
Seeing the way Hinata's body sagged and her eyes drooped, Naruto said the first thing that came to mind. "Why don't you rest, I'll be here when you wake up and I'll help you.
Naruto hadn't expected her to fall asleep in his lap that day. Her body had seemed to just sag as if whatever was holding her up had just drained out of her. Somehow she'd ended up on top of him. And he just didn't know what to do. He wanted to yelp out in surprise or loudly deny that he'd done anything wrong, but Hinata seemed to have fallen asleep before her head had even landed where it had.
He'd been stuck until she woke up. Once she did, she had turned red with embarrassment. Naruto had tried to apologize, but he didn't think she'd heard him. She'd merely thanked him without meeting his eyes.
The day had mercifully gotten better from there. She was eventually able to look him in the eyes once Naruto got her talking about training. They spent the whole morning talking about her training with Naruto continually assuring her. They discussed Hinata's strengths and personal fighting style. Naruto figured that since in the Jyuuken fighting style the user was constantly expelling chakra to damage the opponent that extensive chakra reserves would be necessary, so he suggested several ways of increasing her chakra capacity. Hinata felt that control was one of her strengths so they also planned how she could both improve her control and use it as a weapon.
It had been nearly two weeks since that day and they had trained together nearly every day since. Sakura had joined them as often as her training with Tsunade allowed. Ero-Senin seemed to show up less than half the time, usually late and was usually not very helpful, much to Naruto's disgust.
Hinata and Naruto were taking a late break for lunch when they ran into the Konohamaru Corps. They had just finished their mission for the day and had insisted that Naruto buy them ramen to celebrate. The whole thing seemed suspicious to Naruto. They didn't seem particularly excited about their mission and when he asked them about it they'd quickly change the subject to Hinata. From what little he could glean from their small comments, the mission had been completely boring.
Naruto had been so suspicious that he forgot to invite Hinata until Konohamaru insisted she come. Hinata had offered to help pay, but before Naruto could assure her it was all right Konohamaru had tugged on his sleeve and spoke loudly, "Aren't you a man? You can't let a girl pay for you!"
Naruto just laughed as Konohamaru began pushing him toward the Icharaku ramen stand. "It's all right, I've got enough," was all he could say before he was pushed ahead of the others.
Not to be out done, Moegi grabbed Hinata by the hand and began to pull her along as well. When they caught up at the ramen stand the Konohamaru corps made sure that Naruto and Hinata sat next to each other in the corner and insisted that they order first. Once Naruto and Hinata had finished ordering they turned to find that they were alone.
Not knowing where the kids went they decided to wait for them. After five minutes they decided to give them ten. And after fifteen minutes they decided to go look for them. Naruto had immediately asked if Hinata could find them with her byakugan. She easily found them each hiding across the street where they could easily see inside the stand. Unfortunately she did not hide the seals for her doujutsu, so the spying youths knew immediately that they had been caught. The three of them scattered instantly.
With a quick smile to Hinata Naruto created a Kage-Bunshin and took off after Konohamaru and Udon. Hinata's face momentarily took on a feral grin and after apologizing to the proprietor she left in the direction that Moegi had taken.
Konohamaru seemed to have the worst luck of the three fleeing genin. He ran headlong into someone. That someone turned out to be a shinobi dressed in a sleeveless black ninja gi /uniform/ with gray wraps. "Where do you think your going in such a hurry?" The voice of the man whose feet Konohamaru found himself sprawled in front of had a sickeningly sweet quality to it. But before the young genin could register the sinister undertones to his obstruction's statement he found himself in the air looking down into the slate grey eyes of the black-clad ninja he'd tried to run through. And those eyes didn't look kind.
Konohamaru felt trapped by those malicious eyes. They seemed to try to burn through him. Then without warning they moved up to his forehead and the young man's face twisted from it's previous grim expression into a sneer as the man turned to one of his companions behind him. "Look," he said shaking Konohamaru as if to catch their attention, "a little ninja."
No longer captured by the grey-eyed man's glare, Konohamaru looked behind the man who had grabbed him to see his companions for the first time. On one side Konohamaru saw what he would have thought was a scarecrow that someone had foolishly planted in the middle of the street, if it hadn't moved. The tall figure seemed almost too thin and willowy to be a person. Its clothes looked more like burlap rags than clothes and didn't leave inch of skin uncovered on its entire body. Its head was covered by what appeared to be a burlap sack with two black dots where its eyes should have been.
The figure on the other side was almost the complete opposite of the shabby scarecrow. This one was hooded and when Konohamaru tried to get a look at its face under the hood all he could see were jagged blood red shapes where its eyes and mouth should have been. This one had black shoulder pads with gold trim that its matte black cape hung down from obscuring the rest of its shape from view. Konohamaru found it the more intimidating of the two until the effect was ruined when the imposing figure laughed girlishly at the grey-eyed ninja's remark.
His captor turned back to face him. The black and gray ninja was still smirking as if he knew something that Konohamaru didn't. And Konohamaru figured he was probably right. Konohamaru didn't know what the shinobi was going to do to him, but he figured he was about to find out.
The small ninja braced himself, but before he could be let in on the big secret they were interrupted. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to politely request that you put the boy down." The voice was firm and authoritative and definitely belonged to a woman. Konohamaru turned to see Naruto-nii-san turn a corner and skid to a stop next to his other teammate Sakura.
"And what if we politely refuse." The voice of the hooded woman was cold as ice as she took a menacing step forward. It didn't sound a thing like the tittering girl that seemed to be underneath the hood and cape earlier.
"Then I'd tell you to put him down now." Sakura's voice was chilling and the sound of her knuckles popping was loud. Konohamaru was glad that he hadn't run into her, he'd be unconscious for a week!
"So girl, what is this runt to you?" the grey eyed man asked lazily as he slowly turned his head to face her for the first time, as if she had been beneath his notice until just now.
"He's the grandson of the third Hokage." Sakura replied through gritted teeth. She didn't seem to like being ignored.
Konohamaru didn't hear his captor's reply. He couldn't stand that he was still just the Third's grandson. He'd worked hard to increase his skill and had finally become a Genin, graduating at the top of his class. But that was just what everyone expects from the third Hokage's grandson. He didn't know how he was going to escape his grandpa's shadow, but one thing was for sure, he wasn't going to now unless he took charge of this situation himself.
"Excuse me sir." Konohamaru spoke in the firmest voice he could muster while still being polite. The grey-eyed shinobi was so surprised by it that he stopped mid-rant. "I'm sorry I ran into you. I'd apologize properly, but my feet don't seem to be touching the ground. Would you put me down please?"
The black-clad ninja looked at his prisoner in shock for a moment until his smirk returned. "I don't think I can do that. If I did, you won't learn your lesson."
"And what lesson is that?" Konohamaru heard Naruto-nii-san's voice ask from behind him.
"A little ninja must always pay attention to his surroundings to keep from getting killed by the real ninja!" The gray-eyed shinobi bared his teeth as he pulled his fist back behind his head. Desperate, Konohamaru prepared to use his most powerful technique.
"Orioke-no-jutsu!/Sexy-no-jutsu/"
Konohamaru almost laughed when he saw his captor's eyes widen in shock. He thought it was hilarious the way the gray-eyed ninja drew back almost as if in fear. Konohamaru's face split into a grin. Though his grin was now her grin, and it only enhanced the allure of the busty brunette that he had transformed into. Konohamaru knew that the power of this technique wasn't just in the form of the naked woman he had transformed into; it was in the subtle details, the way he stood and moved her hips making her upper body jiggle. And Konohamaru was pulling out all the stops to make sure this was the best performance he had ever done. This dark haired guy didn't stand a chance!
Konohamaru never saw it coming. One second he was posturing as provocatively as he could and the next he was skidding to a stop on the pavement. He heard Naruto-nii-san's voice call out his name and when Konohamaru looked up he could see Naruto-nii-san running toward him. But before he could get close a shadowy ghost-like form seemed to rush out of the black and gray ninja and run at incredible speed around Naruto-nii-san ending up behind him. His big brother turned to face the shadowy figure and lifted his had to punch it. Then Konohamaru blinked and when he opened his eyes the strange ninja was standing where Naruto-nii-san had been with his fist surrounded by a cloud of smoke.
Naruto had just cornered Udon when he felt the influx of knowledge that happened when one of his Kage-Bunshins was dispelled. He immediately turned and ran as fast as he could to Konohamaru, disappearing in a flash. Leaving Udon to quickly turn his head side to side to look for his disappearing aggressor and not seeing him, sigh in relief.
Fortunately Udon wasn't very far from where Konohamaru had gotten in trouble. Naruto was able to get there within seconds of when his Kage-Bunshin had been dispelled. He moved so fast that he seemed to come out of nowhere skidding to a stop right next to Konohamaru.
The eyes of the ninja that had destroyed his Kage-Bunshin had returned to grey from the solid black they had been when he attacked. He was still standing where he had destroyed the Bunshin with a superior smirk on his face. Now that Konohamaru wasn't in danger he got a good look at the shinobi that had attacked him. His black gi looked immaculate except for the sleeves, which looked like they had been intentionally torn off.
The gray wraps on his arms and legs looked to have been put on meticulously and the gray belt was tied to the side. He wore a Cloud Hit-ate over a proud brow and his black hair sprouted above it in all directions. The whole look said one thing to Naruto: Pretty Boy.
The black clad ninja looked at Naruto, sizing him up, his condescending expression never leaving his face. He didn't show it, but he was impressed. Few people ever had the forethought to attack his ethereal body in anticipation of his physical body catching up and fewer still had the speed to try it, even as unsuccessfully as this ninja had. "That was a pretty impressive use of a Bunshin /Clone/ to escape me."
"It's easier than you'd think," Naruto was smug. He wasn't going to tell this guy that it was a shadow clone the whole time if he didn't know it. And it told Naruto a very important fact about this guys doujutsu /eye-based-technique/. It can't tell the difference between a Kage-Bunshin and the real thing.
"Konohamaru's jutsu was pretty good, but you recovered from it pretty quickly." Naruto grinned insinuatingly.
The black haired shinobi seemed oblivious to what Naruto might have been implying. "If I could be defeated by such a simple vulgar display I would have been forced into marriage and have several children by now."
Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. The girls must be more forward in his village. At least he hoped. "Hey, Sakura-chan, you didn't ever…" Naruto's question was interrupted by the banshee shriek of Haruno Sakura and the loud crunch of Naruto's body crashing through a small brick wall.
The three foreign ninja's heads whipped from side-to-side; first to the crater that Naruto's body had made and then back to the relatively petit girl that had punched him through the wall. Each of them measured the smaller girl up, the grey-eyed shinobi showing a look of surprise on his face for the first time. The girl was much stronger than he had originally surmised, but he couldn't understand how she'd been able to hit someone who could react to his own attacks with a punch that slow. The only conclusion he could make was that the blond had let the girl hit him.
"Sakura-chan," Naruto's voice interrupted the grey-eyed shinobi's mental ramblings. "You didn't have to hit me so hard."
The grey-eyed ninja was shocked to see Naruto climb out of the rubble seemingly none the worse for wear. Then he realized that the blond ninja must have allowed himself to be hit, because he knew he wouldn't be seriously hurt. The grey-eyed shinobi grinned. No matter how physically strong you were or resistant to physical attacks and pain, he knew that there was no way to make yourself immune to his Kurogan's /Black-eye/ power. "What's your name?"
"Isn't it polite to give your own name when you want to know someone else's?" Naruto asked.
"Hakumei Kanojiro."
"Never heard of you," Naruto replied.
"Your village is having its annual Chuunin exam, watch it and you'll learn everything you need to know about me."
"Well, if you're going to be competing against me in the Chuunin exam you had better remember the name Uzumaki Naruto."
"I'll look forward to defeating you then," Kanojiro said with a flourish as he turned around and walked away, his two companions following close behind.
"That's my line," Naruto said loudly to their retreating forms.
"Uhhhh!" Sakura groaned. "Can you stop your posturing, we need to help Konohamaru."
Naruto immediately turned to see his young friend was still on the ground, propping himself up so he could watch the confrontation. He didn't look very steady. "Are you ok Konohamaru? Can you get up?"
"I'm fine Naruto-nii-san." Konohamaru replied as he tried to stand up. Too wobbly, he had to catch himself before he fell back down.
"Don't try to stand." Sakura's voice was gentle when she switched into her role as a healer. "I'm a medic-nin let me look you over."
"I said I'm fine." Konohamaru tried to push her away.
Seeing that Konohamaru didn't want to admit he'd been hurt Sakura tried a different route. "Please, Konohamaru-kun, I'm going to be in the next Chuunin Exam and I need to practice using my medical skills."
"You wanna practice playing doctor with me?" Konohamaru asked unsteadily.
"Hentai no Baka/Perverted Idiot/" was the last thing Konohamaru heard before everything went dark.
End Chapter 7
Thanks for waiting everybody. I'm sorry this took so long; it's been over a year. The job change I had just over a year ago really put a crimp in my writing time, and oddly enough this chapter has been the hardest to write so far. The important part of it was in the subtle details.
The next chapter is already started and shouldn't be so difficult.
Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Hinata's Story: The written Exam
The competition for more than just the exam will be introduced…