Disclaimer: i neglected to say it in the previous chapters, but i don't own naruto, nor did i create any of the characters mentioned so far other than Hinali Hyuga. and Byakuzen was my idea as well but someone else probably thought of something similar at some point so i won't argue about it, unless they sue me. then i'll be angry, and they won't like me when i'm angry. (borrowed from incredible hulk movie, and modified to fit into the context)

7 months later

Hyuga clan training hall

"Again!" Hiashi shouted.

And again Naruto and Hinata went through the forms of the gentle fist. They were improving greatly, thanks to Naruto's never quit attitude. Several times the boy had been found practicing long after the rest of the clan had gone to bed. Even Hiashi had to admit that the boy showed promise, if things kept progressing at this rate Naruto would become the first ever master of the gentle fist without the byakugan bloodline. Granted the moves weren't all the same, and he had to be careful not to harm the boy. But the potential was there. He couldn't help but assume that the style that Naruto ended up with would most likely not be recognizable as the gentle fist, more than likely he would create a new fighting style, one that would be passed down through the revived Namikaze clan for generations. Naruto hadn't been told of his true heritage yet but Hiashi was confident that his plan would end up happening once Naruto was old enough to know the truth.

"Hiashi-sama!" a branch member ran up, dragging Hiashi out of his reverie. "your wife is in labor!"

that was not good news, it was still two weeks early. "take the children to the hospital now and tell them that I am on my way."

"yes Hiashi-sama" the branch member went to obey, taking Hinata by the hand and leading her away.

This caused Naruto to run after them. Ever since the incident with the cloud ninja he refused to be separated from Hinata during the daytime and only reluctantly allowed his parents to take him home at night. Hiashi saw what was happening and intervened before Naruto went on another kicking spree.

"I meant both of them,"he said in an exasperated tone. "Yes Hiashi-sama, please forgive my mistake." And with that the branch member led both chidren away.

At the hospital the children were sent to a play room to wait for their parents. Hinata was scared, she didn't know what was happening to her mother. All she knew was that her mom had been getting a lot bigger recently and her father had told her that soon she would have a little brother or sister to play with. That sounded like fun but she was still worried, she decided to say something about it to Naruto, trusting that he would know what to do, he always did. "n-naru-chan? I'm worried about my mom."

Naruto looked up from the picture he was drawing and gave her a reassurring smile. "she'll be fine Hina-hime, don't worry. The doctors will keep her safe."

"he's right Hina-san. She'll be fine." Neji said as he walked in with his father.

"Naruto, Hinata I want you to listen to me very carefully," Hizashi said as he knelt down to their eye level, " Hinali-sama is going to be very weak over the next few days. So I need you to be on your best behavior until she is feeling better. Do you understand?" when they both nodded an affirmative Hizashi stood up. "now come with me to meet your new sister Hinata, yes Naruto can come too." he said before they could ask the percieved question.

Hinata was overjoyed, she had a new sister! Now everything was perfect.

4 weeks later

hyuga training hall

"naruto"

"yes uncle hizashi?"

"i want you to try something. It's a new training method I've been toying with, to help you compensate for your lack of byakugan while using the gentle fist style."

"i will try it"

"then close your eyes"

Hizashi walked over to him and placed a blindfold over his eyes.

"now, open them."

"but uncle, I don't understand. How is a blindfold going to allow me to be able to use the gentle fist better? It won't let me see anything at all, at least with my limited eyes I could see attacks coming at me."

"and that is why you have stopped progressing." Naruto gave him what would have been a questioning look if he wasn't wearing the blindfold. "you are relying too heavily on your eyesight and not enough on your other senses, in order to progress any further you must learn not to rely on your eyes."

"but then how do I see?"

"I leave that to you Naruto, you may ask whomever you must, use whatever you need, and take however long it requires. Just figure it out."

after Hizashi had left Naruto sat down to think about this new problem. It was impossible. Wasn't it?

Of course Naruto knew that it had to be possible, otherwise Hizashi wouldn't have told him to do it.

But, when after an hour he still had no ideas as to how to make it physically possible, he decided to do what any five year old would do, cheat. And that was the reason why Naruto found himself outside Hiashi's office just after lunch that day. He had been told that he could achieve the solution by any means necessary, so he went to the only Hyuga that could be said to be smarter than Hizashi, his twin brother Hiashi.

Naruto knocked lightly before opening the door a few inches.

"Uncle Hiashi? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Naruto, what is it?"

"Well, Uncle Hizashi told me to figure out a way to fight an opponent with a blindfold on, so that I can compensate for my lack of byakugan. And I was wondering if you knew of any way that it could be possible."

"Hmm... that is a good question Naruto. I don't believe it is physically possible to do such a thing, but with ninjutsu it just might be possible. I do not personally know of a jutsu that will accomplish your task. But fortunately the Hyuga clan archives are currently playing host to the namikaze clan's archives. Housed within is a library of jutsus that could even rival that of the Uchiha clan. I think this is as good a time as any for someone to look through them. I'm sure that the fourth Hokage wouldn't mind a young prodigy such as yourself putting them to good use. But you can't tell anyone that we have the Namikaze archives, many clans would kill to get their hands on some of the jutsus that made the Fourth so powerful. If there is a jutsu that will do what you require then it will be there, if not then you will have to create one. There are instructions on how to do that in the archives as well. But if you have to create your own, come to myself or Uncle Hizashi before you attempt it, so that we can make sure that you don't hurt yourself."

Naruto bowed.

"Thank-you uncle Hiashi for placing this trust in me. I just have one more question."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"Where are the archives?"

"Have Hinata or Neji show you where they are, in fact why don't you ask them for some help? I'm sure that three searchers are better than one. And perhaps you will find something to help them as well."

after naruto left, hiashi got out a piece of paper. on it he wrote one sentence: 'The archives have been opened.' He then put it in an envelope and put a priority seal on it, only the hokage would be able to open the envelope now. if anyone else attempted it the seal would explode, killing the interloper and destroying the document.

hiashi smiled to himself. the hokage would find this piece of information very interesting indeed. their plan was right on track, and the Namikaze clan was about to be reborn in a five year old boy.

30 minutes later

outside the archives

"You're sure that this is it Hina-hime? It doesn't look like much."

Hinata giggled.

"That's the whole point Naru-chan. This is a secret archive. I don't even think that some of the elders know what is in here."

They were standing in front of a dilapidated old building at the back of the Hyuga compound, waiting for Neji to show up. When Naruto had found him he was in the middle of a workout and had to finish, he had promised to meet them outside the archives in an hour. That was 50 minutes ago. Naruto was beginning to wonder if Neji had gotten stopped by someone on his way there, but it wasn't as if he wasn't allowed in the archives or anything. And even if he wasn't, Hinata was there to provide them access, nobody could say no to the heir of the clan. Naruto now saw the reason why Hiashi had him bring her, other than to help him look, if anyone gave them any trouble all Hinata had to do was order them to do something else and they would have to obey.

Just then Neji came running up to them.

"Sorry I took so long, I went to look for some flashlights, in case one of the lights is out or something."

Naruto could see the logic behind Neji's idea so he let it slide.

"As long as you're here now... alright let's go inside before someone decides to ask us what we're doing out here."

When they got inside all three were speechless at the sight before them. Inside the building there was what seemed to be an endless warehouse of information. Row upon row of shelves full of scrolls, books,and parchments stood in front of them. Beckoning the three knowledge seekers to come forth and explore. And explore they did. Naruto headed straight for the Namikaze collection, while Hinata and Neji browsed the Hyuga collection. All of them were looking for one thing, a way for Naruto to see without using his eyes. After several hours of searching, all three had come up empty handed, it appeared that the jutsu they were looking for had not been created...yet. After conferring with the others, Naruto decided to change his search, instead of looking for a jutsu to do exactly what he required, they would instead be looking for any jutsu that looked like it could possibly be combined with another to get the desired effect. This search was more productive. In a scroll on basic jutsus Naruto found instructions on how to make chakra strings, not exactly useful but he felt as if he might find some use for it in the future so he copied it down. He then found a recently made scroll on something called the hiraishin. He had no idea what it was but it mentioned using specially modified kunais to perform the technique correctly. He left the scroll where he found it, it seemed too advanced for him, but an idea was beginning to form in the back of his mind, it would need some fine tuning but it showed promise.

In the Hyuga section Hinata found a scroll on chakra sensing techniques and sensory enhancement jutsus, she felt it was worth looking at so she brought it along as she continued her search. Her next discovery was an old parchment that dealt with certain advanced chakra control exercises that were not common knowledge outside of the clan. Knowing that any attempt by Naruto would require such precise control, she copied it onto a scroll, since the parchment looked like it wouldn't survive Naruto's less than gentle handling.

Elsewhere, Neji was perusing the section containing the clan's collected taijutsu styles. He found a very old scroll that held information on a form of taijutsu that was used by the Hyuga clan before the full development of the gentle fist style. It would still require an extensive amount of work for Naruto to use the style without the benefit of byakugan, but Neji felt that it would serve him much better than the true gentle fist form.

When they met up again at the entrance to the archives, Naruto was pleased to discover that the other two had found something that would help him. The three left the archives just before sundown with their borrowed items. Naruto had a lot of reading to do, of course with Hinata and Neji's help it wouldn't take long at all.

Two weeks later Naruto had the idea for his new training system firmly in place. He was going to create a circle of kunai and attach chakra strings to them, he would wear the blindfold while he was sitting in the middle of the circle with an active sensory enhancement jutsu for his hearing, he was attempting to use the vibrations of the strings combined with what he was hearing to try and sense what was going on around him. Add to that the chakra sensing techniques that Hinata had discovered, and he almost had a workable jutsu that could be used to help him gain an almost byakugan-like view of the world around him. Of course the circle of kunai would not be a factor in the final jutsu. Naruto was planning to phase them out in favor of senbon, and then continue the phasing out process until he could sense the vibrations without a weapon in the ground to conduct vibrations. Eventually he hoped to be able to just attach a chakra string to the ground or maybe even use his feet instead of relying on the chakra strings.

But at the moment he was nowhere near that point, he was sitting in the circle trying to combine the use of the three techniques by using the chakra signatures of various people going about their daily business to practice identifying targets and figuring out how to predict people's movements. It was slow going but he was making headway in his attempts, he had already identifiied and memorized the chakra signatures of 23 other people, the first of which was of course Hinata since she was always nearby practicing her chakra control. Once she got the hang of it she was going to attempt to teach the exercises to Naruto and Neji. Likewise, Neji was practicing the taijutsu form he had discovered and would teach Naruto once he felt he had the basics down. All of this was done without the official knowledge of their parents (or guardians in naruto's case), however they had unofficially been getting help from both Hiashi and Hizashi whenever they needed it. And they were rapidly improving.

By the time Naruto was seven years old he had mastered the techniques that the three had found in the archives. He finally was able to see without his eyes, Although Neji had trained him in the lost taijutsu form recovered from the archives, Naruto had yet to adequately perform it without the use of his eyes.

He had taken to wearing a strip of cloth tied around his forehead, he would use this as a blindfold whenever he felt like practicing his 'byakuzen' skills (he had named it that because it was meant to make up for his lack of byakugan). It was during this time that Naruto and Hinata began taking walks around the village, partly so that Naruto could practice using byakuzen in unfamiliar situations, but also because they had nothing better to do until Neji got out of the academy for the day. This morning they were watching as one of the lower academy classes ran through an obstacle course, at one point in the course there was a rope that the students were supposed to use to swing over a shallow ditch. While watching the students attempt this feat, Naruto began to get an idea, what if he could do that? Only instead of an actual rope he could use the chakra strings that he had used to develop the byakuzen, possibly creating a rope out of chakra if he needed too. It certainly would give him an edge over his opponents in a fight.

He turned to Hinata.

"Hina-hime, what kind of control do you think it would tale to make a rope out of chakra?"

"I don't know Naru-chan, probably more than you have right now."

"Can you help me with that? I want to see if I can do it."

"Why not. There isn't really much else for us to do at the moment other than get into trouble. Let's go to the park to practice. "

"Can we go to ichiraku's first? I'm getting hungry"

"Fine."

At the park Hinata had Naruto put on his blindfold and activate his byakuzen, after going through his normal routine of counting the birds in the surrounding area, an idea stolen from Neji's byakugan training, she told him to try to throw a chakra string at a nearby tree, just to see what they had to work with in terms of skill and range. After several tries he managed to hit the indicated tree but the string snapped as soon as it was tightened. Hinata sighed when she saw this, they had a long way to go and only a year before the academy took over their lives. Just then Naruto spun around and threw a chakra string into the bushes, when he pulled it back a boy came with it.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked, sounding much more confident than she really was.

"My name is Shikamaru, and I was trying to take a nap." the boy, now identified as Shikamaru, said in an exasperated tone of voice.

"Sorry, Shikamaru," Naruto said sheepishly, "i was trying to train myself to use chakra strings and my byakuzen caught you moving, I can't really distinguish between humans and animals yet. I thought you were a squirrel or something, and I wanted to see if I could hit a moving target."

Shikamaru looked intrigued, "what is byakuzen? I've never heard of it."

"Well it's basically fake byakugan." Naruto explained, "i combined some really cool chakra sensing techniques with training my body to sense vibrations in the ground and training my ears to increase my hearing acuity. It's taken me two and a half years, but i've finally gotten 3 of my 5 senses acute enough to compensate for my lack of byakugan. Now I just have to improve it so that I can tell friend from foe..."

"And so you can distinguish whether Shikamaru is a squirrel or not." Hinata interjected, giggling as she said it.

"Well that seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through when you can already see like a normal person. But suit yourself. As for me i'm gonna go take a nap under that tree over there, please try not to hit me again."

"It's about time for us to be going anyways, our cousin is about to get out of school." Hinata said dragging Naruto away.

After grabbing Neji from school they explained Naruto's idea to Neji, he agreed that it showed promise but told Naruto to concentrate on his byakuzen fighting techniques until he mastered them completely.

Which Naruto did, but he didn't completely stop trying to make something out of his chakra string idea.

Late at night when he had trouble sleeping he would practice throwing and releasing chakra strings, one night he realized that if he could find a way to retract his chakra strings without pulling them he might be able to change his direction in mid jump without having to run into something first. He smiled as he fell asleep, he had just thought of a secret technique that nobody else would have, now if only he could pull it off.

A/N: Well what do ya know, i actually got it out rather fast. don't expect me to maintain this speed though, i'm about out of my pre-written chapters, and i have prior engagements that cannot be broken for the next two weeks or so. i may be able to get out 1 or 2 more chapters that are already written before that time comes though.

shameless plug: be sure to cheer on northern illinois university as we take on some school from florida in the International bowl. i'll be there in the NIU Band, somewhere.

oh and i'd like to thank my first constructive reviewer who actually gave me an opinion about the story, and where it was going. you know who you are.