Dang, thanks for all the reviews! I can't believe how many more people have read this story already! The only letdown about it (In my opinion) is that, I released chapter 2 a day early! (Laughs at self)

To Herblade: I corrected it in a repost after reading your review. Also, yes, that was foreshadowing NejiTen.

To GraityTheWizard/DarkSamuraiX1999/vash3055: I thought so too. Nice to know people agree.

To Dragonman 180: Yeah, I did get the names mixed up. However, I have corrected that now. Also, the fact she hasn't learned rotation yet and Jariya surviving both are for important reasons, one of which you find out in this chapter.

To Chewie Cookies: I can't wait either. Ok, enough answering reviews, on to the story!

(Note: I edit chapters I've already posted every now and then, so it doesn't hurt to reread them.)


I think that feinting is the bodies' involuntary "play dead" reflex. – Anonymous


A Konoha Street

Hinata was walking slowly behind her two teammates. She simply couldn't accept how bad her day was going. First, she (once again) made no progress with learning the Eight Trigrams rotation technique, then she forgot about her appointment with the rest of team eight, after that, she had run right past the meeting spot, and to top it off, they were going to go eat at Ichiraku Ramen bar, which happens to be where-

"Hey, look who it is, Hinata!" Kiba said, almost mockingly. Hinata, who was startled from her thoughts, looked in the direction her teammate was pointing. When she saw who he was pointing at, she definitely turned bright red.

Just my luck. Hinata thought. Sitting at the ramen bar was none other than her crush, Naruto. The heiress turned to Kiba with a pleading look, but when she saw the evil grin on his face, she realized he had done this on purpose. Unfortunately, it she was too late to make any complaints.

To make things worse for the Hyuga, Kiba wasn't done tormenting her just yet. The dog-boy was still recovering from his sister's morning tirade, and he still wanted to have a little more fun.

"Hey Naruto!" He called out, waving his hand in greeting. "I didn't expect to find you here!"

The Jinchuriki (after asking for more ramen) turned towards the three of them and waved back.

"Hey Kiba! Hey Shino! Hey Hinata! I guess I could say the same to you!" Naruto said loudly. He looked like he was about to say more, but Teuchi had just put another bowl in front of him. As he ate, Kiba (while half-pushing Hinata) came over and sat down. Shino quickly followed him. Unfortunately for the heiress, the only seat left was the one next to Naruto. Trembling, the poor shinobi sat down on the remaining seat. The three said hi to Kakashi, then ordered their own meals. They started catching up with what everyone else was doing. Eventually, the topic shifted to Naruto's training.

"So Naruto, have you been practicing any water jutsu lately?" Kiba asked. The blonde made a face when he heard the question.

"Yeah, it didn't work as it was supposed to, as you probably noticed." He replied. Shino's eyes narrowed (At least, I think they did.) as Naruto went on to comically describe his pitiful attempts to learn the water dragon technique.

"Hinata's been working on a new jutsu herself. Though, she hasn't had any more luck then you." The Abrane mentioned offhandedly. Hinata started sweating even more, if that is possible.

Not you too Shino! The Hyuga whispered under her breath. With both of her teammates torturing her, there was no way she would survive lunch. Naruto, on the other hand, looked almost as interested in the conversation as he was with the ramen in front of him (which is saying something).

"Really, Hinata?" The jinchuriki asked. "What's the technique?"

"T-the Eig-ght T-trigrams Rot-t-tation techn-nique." She stammered. Hinata started to mentally brace herself as she realized that, thanks to Shino's mentioning it, she would have to talk about her failure to master it in front of Naruto, of all people.

"You mean the one where you spin around and send people flying?" Naruto asked her innocently, as he struggled to remember what he knew about it.

"Y-yes but the sp-pining is only part of it. Y-you have to be a-able to exert chakra cor-r-rectly, and o-on top of t-that, do them both-h at the same time, which I ca-an't do yet." The Hyuga slumped her shoulders. "It's s-simply impossible for me to do both things at the same time."

Hinata's description of the technique reminded Naruto of something he was all too familiar with. "Um, Hinata, the whole spin, chakra, and putting it together thing sounds a whole lot like the Rasengan. For my technique, you have to compress a large amount of chakra, spin it all at high speed, then keep it that way long enough to hit someone with it. It's the same way for both moves." The blonde's intelligent-sounding analysis of the two techniques raised a few eyebrows.

"The third parts of both of them are as difficult as hell, too." The jinchuriki continued, much to Kiba's amusement.

"You know," Kakashi mused, "you could be on to something there Naruto. I'll look into it later." Though the copy ninja refused to admit it, the jinchuriki had piped his curiosity, and he really wanted to find out if there was some connection between the two techniques.

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto thanked him. Unlike certain acquaintances of his, Naruto wasn't into research. Letting Kakashi do it was, in his opinion, a much better choice.

"Hey, uh, N-Naruto-kun." Hinata began to ask him. "Since you can do the R-Rasengan now, w-w-well, do you have any t-tips for getting through the l-last p-p-part?" She seriously hoped that he know the one thing she needed get through the third stage. That would turn her bad day into something a whole lot better. After all, not only would she get through a whole conversation with Naruto without fainting (good luck with that), but there was a good chance she could finish learning the sixty-four palms rotation, all of that would be done in a single day!

To her dismay, he only gave her a sympathetic shrug. "Sorry, but I use a shadow clone to help deal with that, which I know for sure you can't do with your technique." He patted her on the head. "Still, you're much better at concentrating then I am, so I'm sure you will succeed, believe it!"

That was the wrong thing to do right then. The disappointment, the pat on the head, and the compliment was too much for the poor Hyuga. She promptly turned tomato-red and fainted. Kiba smacked his head.

"She still has a long way to go." Shino muttered shrewdly as Naruto poked her muttering "Ano…Hinata. Are you ok?"