Hello everybody. Sorry about the delay, but recently friends and family have been forcing me to "get a life." or "find a girl." Thus keeping me away from the computer. Nevertheless I'm still doing my best to keep going. lol. Anyways I hope everybody enjoys this chapter. I'm going to really try pushing the story line with these next few chapters. Don't forget to review.
I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form, but if I did this is how it would go.
HINATA'S LESSON CONTINUES
Hinata had felt a little nervous at Jiraiya's last comment, but didn't say anything. She waited to hear out what he really meant. Jiraiaya sensed her discomfort and smiled a mischievous grin. He let the moment hang in the air before he explained himself. "Your clan is extremely proud of it's techniques and skills. I haven't known you long, but let me ask. Why do you use your your byakugan in a fight?" Now it was his turn to wait as she thought of a response.
Hinata thought about this, she didn't really know what answer he wanted to hear. She thought about herself in a fight and after a few moments of thinking she looked up a little unsure of herself and answered. "Ano, I use it to find enemies chakra points, analyze their fighting style and counter it, and use it to avoid attacks which I would otherwise not see." She was basically speaking to herself as she did that however she then turned to Jiraiaya to see if she had answered the question right.
Jiraiya had expected as much. He never had a Hyugga pupil before and thought this should be interesting. "Hinata, did you ever consider using your blood limit to learn." He could tell from her blank expression that she had not. "It's okay, it's not your fault. That's the way you were brought up." He paused reflecting on what he knew about her clan. "Your byakugaan is much more potent than the sharingan in that aspect. The sharingan can't pick up everything if someone moves fast enough they can miss a movement, and if it's under their cloak or out of their vision you on the other hand can do better." He began walking around the large stone "Do you know how your affinities to the elements allow your blood limit to function?" He asked as he kept walking.
This was something Hinata did know, she answered with a little more confidence this time. She stayed where she was not knowing what to expect. "Hai, our affinity to lighting shocks our system into the state where our blood limit works and the wind affinity allows more flow of oxygen and blood so that we can sustain the state for a prolonged time." She finished. She wondered if he wanted to know all the details and waited to see if he asked.
Jiraiaya was impressed and said so. "Wow, Hinata that was very well said." He was going behind the stone now so he didn't see her blush. He was sure she knew her affinity with lightning surpassed the Uchihas. He also suspected that she knew exactly how it was that the wind allowed her to see so much as it sent all the information to her brain with more clarity due to the increased heart rate. As he thought about it, he was really amazed at how well built the Hyugaa clan members were. "Okay, this is what I want you to do. Turn on your byakugan and watch me make some seals. I don't want to hear any questions I just want you to imitate what I do as quickly and accurately as you can. Will you do that for me?" He asked.
Hinata had already turned on her blood limit and saw him on the other side of the stone. She gave him her affirmative and took in a deep breath. She had heard of the Uchiha's copy Jutsu which was less of a jutsu and more of a skill, but had never thought of using it. She cleared her mind as everything came into clearer focus. She looked through the stone and awaited Jiraiya's instructions. However none were forthcoming as he simply nodded. Hinata was about to start thinking when everything sort of clicked and she immediately brought up her hands. About two seconds passed when suddenly she saw Jiraiya begin forming seals at a break-neck speed, however she die not miss a single one and her hands did perfectly what she asked them to do. As Jiraiya performed his last seal he lowered his arms towards the ground and Hinata did the same. As she did so she felt the chakra leave her body and saw the ground begin to raise up like a mole was under digging a tunnel furiously. As she followed the path of her jutsu the disturbed earth came to a stop a few feet away from the stone and a small rock outcropping violently erupted from the ground and struck the stone. Hinata was confused about what had just happened, but she noticed that the outcropping on Jiraiya's side was much bigger. She relaxed and turned off her blood limit as she saw him walking back around the stone to see how she had done. She was already feeling bad that her outcropping was so small.
To her surprise Jiraiya looked at the outcropping and then looked at her. He gave her a thumbs up and said. "Good job Hinata." Hinata was totally shocked. She had no idea what to say or how to react. He saw Hinata's surprise and asked with a clueless expression. "What's wrong Hinata?" He saw nothing wrong with how she did.
Hinata stuttered her reply. "I- I couldn't make the outcropping like yours. A-are you just saying that to make me feel good? I-I can d-deal with criticism. P-please be honest." She said she wanted to just fall to her knees she was so disappointed with herself.
Jiraiaya still didn't fully understand how fragile her confidence could be at times, but he understood that she didn't get the purpose of the exercise. He didn't realize the reason she was so down on herself was because she had expected much better results. He just tried to explain it to her and hoped it would ease her worries. "The purpose of this exercise is for you to learn a few new jutsu's and identify if you have any other affinities we aren't aware of. In addition to that it was a test to see how good your byakugan really works." He smiled as he kept going knowing that what he was about to tell her was sure to brighten her mood. "There's no way an Uchiha shinobi woulda been able to copy that jutsu the way you did. Plus, because of the focus you achieve while using your blood limit you retain how to perform the seals perfectly. Right?" He saw that she was becoming more at ease once again. "Don't think it's a test for you to get the exact same results as me. I just have a stronger affinity to earth than you. Plus, I'm a legendary Sannin." He finished. He had a big smile on his face as he said this.
Hinata could not tell if he was joking about the last part, but she couldn't help, but smile. What he said made sense and he was a legendary warrior. Even though she hadn't heard that much about him she had heard about him. She looked up with new determination in her eyes. "Hai, thank you for your kind works Jiraiya-sama. I won't let you down." She said.
Jiraiya smiled and gave her the thumbs up once again. "Alright, that's what I wanna hear." He walked over to the other side of the stone once again. As he walked a thought re-occured to him. 'Naruto was right, Hinata is weird.' He also decided on what element to do next. He was weak with it so Hinata wouldn't feel bad if she compared their output. He waited a few moments he then asked Hinata if she was ready. "You ready over there?!"
Hinata had turned on her blood limit and let herself relax. She reminded herself that she was just beginning the training and would have more time to improve so it wasn't important how well she did right now. She heard Jiraiaya's question and answered quickly. "Hai!!" She said in a loud and confident voice. She focused on him and saw him begin forming his seals. Her mind went blank as she focused and copied him. When she finished her seals she felt her lungs expand and breathed out. As she began to breathe out she felt her mouth grow cold and suddenly instead breathing air out of her mouth she felt water rushing out. She didn't panic however as she saw Jiraiya was doing the same thing. The sensation passed after a few moments and once she stopped expelling water she placed her hand over her chest wondering what she had just done. Jiraiya was once again walking around the stone and looked at what she had done. He looked at the area that was wet and looked up at Hinata. She asked him what she was wondering about. "What exactly did I do? Jiraiya-san."
Jiraiya beamed at that. He really liked the way she showed him respect. Unlike other people he knew. He answered the question readily enough. "The jutsu's I'm showing you are summoning jutsu's. You're basically summoning the elements to your body and expelling them. The first one was earth since it is so close most of the time it works a little differently you can summon it and push it in whatever direction you want. Wind is summoned into your lungs and you expel a large amount of it from your lungs. Since I know you're compatible with wind I decided to wait to try your compatible elements last. However in Water and Fire there is an element of wind so when you summon it the wind is summoned first and then the moisture or in the case of fire gases are summoned second to summon the elements in a way that you can push them out. In addition an element of electricity which is conducted by your body goes into creating the spark which you use to create the fire outside of your body." He paused and once again thought about how conveniently made the Hyuga clan was. "Even though you don't have an affinity to either water or fire, due to your other affinities you're summoning of water and fire will be above average. You get what I'm saying?" Jiraiya asked.
Hinata nodded it all seemed to make sense. After having these questions answered another one poped into her head and began coming out of her mouth before she could stop herself. "What about Naru..." She caught herself, but now that she had already started and Jiraiaya was waiting she felt she had to finish the question. "Ano, Naruto? What w-were his af-affinities? Ano, I mean a-are?" She could feel the heat rising and was hoping furiously she wasn't blushing. Jiraiya didn't notice as he looked down at the ground at this question.
Naruto's affinities, Jiraiya thought. Even though Jiraiaya had been with Naruto for so long he was still not sure how to answer. He turned around with this on his mind and said to her as he walked to the other side. "That is something best left for him to explain to you. You'll see him soon enough, I think. Don't forget to ask him." Hinata was now blushing furiously. She would have to ask him. She covered her face with her hands trying to hide the blush. She tried to compose herself. She put them down as Jiraiya called back. "Okay Hinata are you ready?"
She quickly turned on her blood-limit and yelled her affirmative. "Hai, Jiraiya-san I'm ready!" She focused on Jiraiya to learn the next set of seals and summonings. They went through the same process as they covered all the elements and Hinata successfully learned all of them. She had been rather pleased with the lightning. It had felt like chills running through her body towards her hands and an explosion of lightning erupting from right in front of her hand. Jiraiya had explained this element as well after they did it and she liked the fact that it was active as long as she held the last seal. It was a splendid show to her as she caught the electricity branch out and strike the water of the hot-springs.
As they were walking back to camp after their training session he told her what was on his mind. "You were very impressive, your affinity's to lightning and wind were off the charts. Your fire and water were a little bit above average and your earth was below average, but that shouldn't be a problem, you got a lot of room to grow without earth as it is." He paused a moment and was pleasantly surprised by her gratitude.
"Arigatou, Jiraiya-san. I was just..." She was blushing again, she still wasn't used to compliments. "I just did what you asked of me." She then fell silent not knowin what else to say.
Jiriaya thought she was to humble, but didn't say anything, instead he continued with his previous conversation. "I gotta admit I was also impressed with your speed picking up the copy skill. However you gotta know your limits, Even though your skills surpass that of the Uchiha clan you are still unable to copy blood-limits or others or if they use props or weapons. You'll be able to decipher when it is wise to use them I would hope. Anyways now that you got this skill you should be able to develop your skills quickly, but never forget that training is always important to master what you learn. This way you can make whatever skills you learn your own." He finished. Hinata commited all of his words to memory. Thinking all the while she was going to improve greatly on this trip. They then went back to meet with Shino. Jiraiya then summoned the frogs and they were on their way to their next destination.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Naruto followed Neji to the training area. They walked along casually making small conversation. Naruto was insistent on knowing how much Lee had improved, but Neji would not say. After a while of prodding and asking if they were almost to the training area Neji was all too happy to finally reach it. They walked through two huge doors and came to the other side. Naruto let out an exclamation of awe as they entered. The training area was huge he scanned the area and his eyes first found Temari and Hirai speaking to one another, it seemed they had just finished training as they were both wiping sweat off their foreheads. Naruto was about to start walking towards them when a familiar face instantly jumped in front of him making him jump back in surprise. It was Lee that was now standing right in front of them. Lee took no notice of Naruto's reaction instead beginning his speech. "So Naruto like true rivals our paths have once again crossed. This is a sign that we must pit our skills against one another and see who has grown the most in the way of the honorable shinobi." Naruto was now in a sitting position looking at Lee in disbelief. He really hadn't changed at all Naruto thought. Neji's thoughts were going along the same line. He was thinking 'this is the only training area they showed us, and your paths crossed with Naruto yesterday. Lee... baka. Lee however was to into his speech to notice their looks. He flipped and landed on one finger he then began to do one fingered push-up's while he kept talking. "As you can see the beautiful blue beast of Konoha has grown much stronger."
Naruto meanwhile had gotten up and dusted himself off. He walked towards Lee as he began talking. "Oh yeah right, I forgot that was supposed to scare me." Lee had returned to his feet and was watching Naruto like a hawk. He didn't like the sneaky look on the blond shinobi's face. Naruto stopped a few feet in front of Lee as he kept talking. "Strength is no good if you don't have something I like to call sp-" Three things happened in that instant. Naruto launched a punch of blinding speed. Lee however also moved with equally blinding speed. However at that very moment Temari's huge fan fell in between them. Naruto and Lee couldn't stop themselves in time so Naruto ended up punching the fan into Lee's open palm. "WHAT THE HELL?!!" Naruto yelled.
A few yards away from them Hirai let out an exclamation of admiration. "Wow, Temari-san you must really know them well to have timed that so well." She was walking fast trying to keep up with Temari and didn't see the huge pulsing vein on her forehead. Temari had not heard a thing that Hirai had said. She was worried about her fan. It was her favorite fan, Shikamaru had liked it when he saw her and she had a reason to favor it now. God help them if they had broken it. She had just done it as a stylish way to make an entrance and get Naruto to spar Hirai first. She saw Naruto pull his hand back and the fan remained intact. A ray of relief shot through Temari. When she reached them she had once again composed herself. Naruto and Lee both looked at her with anxiety and curiosity. They waited for her to speak and she obliged. "Gomen, I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to ask Naruto a favor." She directed her gaze at Naruto who met her gaze with a look of curiosity. "My Kohai here would like to spar with you. I'd like you to fight her before you two begin destroying each other. Is that acceptable... Naruto?" She asked.
Naruto gulped the look she had given him had only left him with one option. "Sure thing Temari." He let out a nervous laugh. "Who's you kohai?" He asked. Temari nodded towards Hirai. Naruto's eyes widened a little bit at this, but he wasn't about to refuse her request. He began walking forward towards the center of the training ground. Hirai's eyes following every step of the way.
Temari put her hand on Hirai's shoulder briefly and said. "Here's your chance. Good luck and remember what I said." She then patted her on the shoulder twice and gave her a push. Hirai began walking forward.
Neji had observed all this and commended Temari for how she had handled the situation. "You don't want your pupil to show Naruto her limit do you? You are a good tactician. Do you think she'll have a shot at beating Naruto?" He said coolly.
Temari shot him a knowing look. "You should know the answer to that, but regardless of the outcome there is something to learn from this." She turned to Lee and thanked him as she took her fan from him. "Arigatou, Lee. I'm glad you didn't break it. It's on-" She was about to say one of my favorites, but as she took the fan and pulled it towards her it broke. She paused and looked at the fan for a moment before the vein exploded on her forehead. Neji saw this as it was happening. This did not look good for them.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
To clarify for those that are curious about Hinata's blood limit. The reason wind helps her so much is because it speeds up the heartbeat. If you know about animal anatomy it should come as no surprise that animals with faster heartbeats such as birds and other animals have great reaction times as well as vision because all the information is processed at a faster rate. While animals with slower heart rates process the information at a slower rate thus worse reaction time and worse sense of vision. The mind in these animals does not process the information fast enough for them to pick up all the details of what they are seeing. I hope this clarified somewhat what I was talking about in the ch. There is another aspect of this that I will touch on later so for now I'll leave it at this.
PREVIEW
What's going to happen with Naruto and Hirai. Will Neji and Lee survive Temari's wrath. How far is team 8 going.
RSO'S
asianwriter- I hope you're really patient then. Sorry bout that.
narashikamaru21- Great to know, now I can do whatever I want without having to worry about you suing me. J/K. Thank you for the compliment, I know it's not Naru/Hina, but it gives me practice. Hope you enjoy this one. Sorry, haven't gotten to read Ch. 13 yet, my life is very hectic at the moment, but I'll try to read it asap and review.
danny- I know huh, man if Naruto had done that to me I don't know if I would have been able to wait until he left before throwing those kunnai's. Yeah, Gaara must be loving being back. Thanx and I will.
causiambetta- Oh... that's a good question. I'm glad you liked it.
dragonman180- yeah. I'm gonna start pressing the story forward quickly in the next two chapters. Still got some things to cover, but I'll get them together asap.
crazygirlofmanynames- She'll be fine. Thanx.
ryan- Thanx, hope you like the rest of the story.
dragonnick- Alright!!!
warprince- done.
sirus- thanx.
aquakyubi- Thanx for the review. Well, I don't know what you mean about the plotline, but it's still developing so hopefully it'll get better. I try to make the battles easy to read so as not to loose the pace of it. I'll try to keep that in mind in the next fights though. You mean like do aurthor notes at the end describing the jutsu's. That's not a bad idea. I'll take that into consideration.