This is my first story. Don't hate for no reason. Will take fair criticism though.

I do not own Naruto or anything related. That goes to Masashi Kishimoto

CHAPTER 8

"Good Morning Genin! Today is our first official day as Team 8." The morning after the test the genin returned to Training Ground 8 and were ready to train. Confidence was radiating off of Naruto so strongly that even Hinata looked confident.

"Our training will start everyday at 8 am. You will start with 15 minutes of stretching followed by 3 laps around the forest. Next is fifty pushups and sit-ups and an hour of chakra control. Finally we will have individual sessions for an hour. For right now I will just be watching just to see your speed, strength, stamina, etc. Now stretch."

First they had stretched their arms, followed by their chest, and finally their legs. Once they were done the genin heard a shout, "Your laps are next!"

Jumping up from their stretch Naruto had started out slightly ahead of the others but by the first lap a gap began to form. While Naruto kept running, the others were starting to show fatigue. Naruto completed his second lap nearly a minute before Shino with Hinata a few seconds after. And on the final lap Naruto was able to get a few minutes of rest before Shino arrived roughly three minutes later. By the time Hinata had finished hers another minute after Naruto was halfway through his pushups. By the time she began her pushups Naruto had finished his and had begun his sit-ups.

When Naruto had finished all of his exercises Shino had just begun his sit-ups, and Hinata was half way through her push-us. Naruto decided to lay down so that all three of them could begin chakra control together. Fifteen minutes later when Hinata had rested up from the physical exercise. They were all prepared to begin the leaf floating exercise but Kurenai intervened, "Actually I'm going to teach you a new chakra control exercise. Tree-climbing."

Both Naruto and Hinata raised their hands, "I a-already know h-how."

"Me too," Naruto echoed

Surprised, Kurenai had to change plans, "Oh. Then practice while I teach Shino, then I'll teach you two water-walking."

Naruto called out, "I know that too."

Kurenai was shocked. Water-walking was supposed to be a chunin level skill but Naruto knew it before he became a genin. "An hour wouldn't be enough to teach all of you a separate chakra control lessons so let's try something different."

All three genin nodded their heads in approval so Kurenai continued, "I'll teach Shino tree-climbing while Naruto teaches Hinata water-walking." 'And maybe it will give Hinata some confidence.'

"Come on Hinata, let's go to the river nearby."

-with Naruto and Hinata-

When they reached the river Naruto began to strip, only leaving on his pants and shoes. Hinata began blushing heavily but before she fainted Naruto shouted, "No! Do not faint on me!"

This snapped Hinata out of her spiral. Seeing her more focused he continued, "This is different from tree-climbing so you will fall in at least once. Take off any clothes that are unnecessary so they don't get wet."

Slowly unzipping her overcoat Hinata was embarrassed. She developed a light blush but this time Naruto had one to match. The mesh armor that she wore under the coat showed that she was much more developed than anyone her age. "U-um l-lets start on the s-shallow end." Taking a breath Naruto continued, "The deeper you go the harder it gets."

Walking to the edge Naruto explains, "When you tree-climb you send a constant amount of chakra to create a suction effect that adheres you to the surface." Seeing Hinata following along he goes on, "The difference between that and water-walking is that the chakra you have to send out is fluctuating. Water is always flowing, moving, changing and you have to change your chakra with it."

Stepping onto the water Naruto holds out his hand, "Come. Step onto the water. Use your chakra to increase the surface tension of water enough to hold your weight."

Slightly blushing, she takes Naruto's hand and focuses chakra to her feet. She puts her left foot on water feeling the flow of the water so that she could learn to adjust. For her it felt weirdly comfortable. After adjusting she put all her weight on her left foot and fortunately it held so she put her right foot on the water and let it adjust. After a minute she took a step, then another and another. Soon enough Naruto had let go and let her run around the surface of the river.

Standing there off to the side of the river Naruto watched the girl, with a beautiful smile, enjoying herself and he could only think one thing, 'Beautiful.' And as she ran, almost danced over the water he continued to look on. But then he shook his head trying to clear those thoughts from his head, 'Where did that come from.' Hearing a splash he looked out over the water he saw Hinata flailing in the center of the river going downstream, and speeding up, 'Shoot!'

He ran down the river after her, the running water speeding him up slightly, but he began to be outpaced by the rushing river. He got more worried as her flailing was dying down, 'Kai!' Releasing his restriction seal he caught up within 10 seconds, but her head just sank below the water. 'Damn it!' Letting himself sink into the water he grabbed her arm, wrapped it around his neck and began to swim towards the river edge. Pulling her out of the water he laid her on her back, but he couldn't hear her breathing so he began doing CPR.

Finally she spit up the water in her lungs and began to breathe. As she woke up he laid next to her and breathed laboriously, "Thank Kami."

"W-what h-happened."

Naruto gave a tired smile, "Well I did say you would fall in at least once. I just didn't expect it to be in the rapids."

Hinata adopted an embarrassed and depressed look, "I-I'm s-sorry. I-I'm s-s-so w-weak and u-useless. I-I--"

Naruto jumps to hug her and whispers in her ear, "You are not weak. You are not useless."

He holds her by the shoulder and tries to look her in the eyes but she keeps staring at the floor, tears developing. Taking her chin in his hand she moves her face to meet his, "You are amazing. You learned to water-walk. In one try! I couldn't do that. It took me hours."

Hinata was too sad to understand the position she was in and she only asked, "Really?"

"Yes. Really. I am so lucky to be on your team. And I hope that we can learn from each other just as much as we learn from Kurenai-sensei."

Hinata finally recovered from her downward spiral and she finally smiled and Naruto smiled with her. But when they looked at each other and fully understood that their faces were three inches away from each other, one hand on her shoulder the other holding her chin. They were completely drenched so her figure showed even more than before, and the water glistened off of Naruto's abs.

And for the first time someone actually matched Hinata's blush as they blushed so hard they looked like glow sticks and passed out.

At the end of the hour Kurenai left behind a shadow clone to teach Shino and went to look for the wayward pair of genin. Near the river she had only found their shirts and jackets but had sensed them unmoving about a mile downstream. Picking up the shirts she ran down stream where she found a shirtless Naruto with a drop of blood trailing down his nose passed out laying next to a passed out Hinata with her mesh armor stuck to her skin and a trail of blood down her nose too. She looked down smiling, 'He might be what she needs after all.' First she woke Naruto then threw him his shirt, "Get out of here before I wake her up."

"O-ok."

Making a shadow clone she told Naruto, "Follow this clone for your individual lesson."

Putting on his jacket he followed the clone back upstream.

Once they were far enough away the clone asked, "So what would you like to work on?"

"Actually I wanna discuss something with you before we start."

"Ok sure. What is it?"

"I'm trying to become a seal master. And a few months ago when I reached level 4 they introduced the restriction seal."

Kurenai raised her hand to indicate a pause, "Wait, what level are you at now?"

"I'm almost done with five."

"Out of?"

"Ten. But anyway, the restriction seal is one you place on the body to restrict movement by a set amount. So at level one it feels like you're wading through water but with your whole body, then level two feels like mud, harder and harder to level 10."

"Okay so why are you telling me this?"

"Well If I applied this seal to our team then it would make any movement a workout, and improve physical training."

She was starting to get interested in this seal, "But what if we get into a serious fight?"

"Levels are adjustable so you could deactivate it entirely, or raise the level. All it requires is some chakra."

"You could apply this seal yourself?"

"Yup."

"How?"

"Well this seal is applied directly to the body so I would need access to the back and limbs."

"So the person getting the seal would have to be naked?" Kurenai raised an eyebrow.

Naruto paused to think for a few seconds but responded, "Well I think I know a way around that but if it doesn't work, then yes."

"Ok. When could you apply the seal?"

"Whenever," Naruto shrugged, "It takes about 30 minutes per person."

"Alright. When we get back together we can ask your teammates. But I, personally, will let you place the seal on me. Anything else?

"Yes, I want you to test our affinities."

Kurenai squinted suspiciously, "That's a chunin level skill. It's way too early."

"Wait, this is for two reasons. On this team I'm meant to be the powerhouse, the main offensive unit, but right now the only combat related jutsu I know are the shadow clone and kawarimi, which while important, aren't much. This basically makes me a one man army taijutsu specialist."

Kurenai nodded her head in understanding so Naruto continued, "My massive chakra reserves gives me incredible potential as a ninjutsu specialist so it would be helpful to know what jutsu would be the easiest for me to learn, though eventually I would love to master all five chakra natures just like the Sandaime. Plus if I use my clones I could use combo jutsu by myself."

Kurenai scratched her chin in thought, "That does make sense. I guess I could test your affinity. What's the second reason?"

"Hinata."

Kurenai looked at Naruto confused, "What does she have to do with this?"

"I don't think she has an earth affinity."

"What? All Hyugas do."

"Well she's not like other Hyugas is she? She is more flexible and passive. And whenever she fights it looks like she has to correct herself almost as if…"

"...she's fighting herself." Kurenai finished.

"Exactly."

Kurenai looked at Naruto with hope, "I really hope you're right because if you are, this solves most of her problems."

Naruto grinned back, "You and me both."

Kurenai's smile softens and she asks, "Now how can I actually help you?"

"Well I never got to know the next chakra control exercise."

Pulling out a kunai, it begins to hover in her hand, "Each chakra exercise corresponds to a rank. Water-walking was chunin. The next one is the Jonin chakra control exercise, Kunai Balancing. Let's see how fast you can learn it."

To be Continued…

I have edited Chapter 6 so that Shino and Kurenai's introductions are filled in. I apologize for the mistake.

I will post every one to two weeks. Thank you for reading.