Hiashi twisted and turned in his bed, plagued by nightmares of his late wife's death. He sat up straight in bed and barely held back the scream that was fast approaching. "Hanna," Hiashi whispered to himself. "Why did you have to go? Why did you have to decide to go out to the river to think when it was raining? You should have known it was nearly impossible to walk on water when it was raining so hard, and after you had just gotten over your sickness," Hiashi lamented his wife's loss in his bed comforted by the sound of Hinatas slight snoring in her room across the hall and the much louder snoring from the room directly next to his own.
Soon after he was awoken from his fitful sleep he ran over the events that had led to his meeting Naruto and agreeing to train him all those years ago. "It was almost five years ago when I got that letter. I saw the name in the 'From' box and assumed it was a prank right away, but the moment Hinata saw the letter with the Yondaimes name on it she insisted on reading it." Hiashi sighed remembering the memory. "If, at that time, I had known about Naruto I would have gladly found him earlier and taken him in. I still can't believe he was so vague in a letter eight years after his own death. The entire letter said was 'Remember my legacy,'" Hiashi sighed and rolled over on his side and fell back into a restless and dreamless sleep.
OoOoO
The sun entered in shafts as Naruto began to wake up. While he was still in a stage of semi-consciousness he realized he was not on his bed. The bed he was staying in currently was soft, large, fluffy, and had absolutely no lumps in it. With this realization, Naruto panicked. While outside he seemed extremely calm and focused, inside he was in a state of terror. He opened his eyes to see a large room with his clothes, washed dried and pressed, waiting for him on the oversized dresser. Naruto started, somewhat, out of his former stupor and quickly changed out of his pajamas and into his street clothes quickly. "Where am I?" Naruto asked himself seeing that the décor of the house was familiar but the room its self was vague and didn't jive with any of his memories.
As Naruto was walking out of the room he had found himself in he went by instinct to his bathroom, which was right across the small hall in his apartment. He opened the door with his mind still coming out of a state of half-sleep, when the door was opened he saw Hinata standing in front of him in her pajamas. Naruto was only slightly aware of the fact that he was standing in front of his girlfriend who was wearing only a pair of shorts and a massively over sized tee-shirt. When the realization finally sunk in that he wasn't standing in the door to his bathroom he turned a bright red color and slammed the door on Hinata.
'How did Hinata end up in this… wherever I am?' Naruto asked himself wile he was creeping slowly toward a wholly conscious state. After a moment the events of the night before came rushing back to Naruto. "Holy crap… I just spent the night in one of the guest rooms of one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha… and I'm not even a ninja yet." This realization filled Naruto with joy and he walked out of the room with a small smile on his face and walked by memory to the dining room, hoping that he could get some breakfast before he left for the academy.
When Naruto walked into the dining room he immediately saw Hinata sitting and eating breakfast. He quickly looked at anything but Hinata, remembering his earlier… incident walking in on Hinata. Hiashi merely spared a glance at the young man and continued talking to the man sitting at his right side. "Hello Hiashi-sama, Hizashi-sama," Naruto greeted both the men in the room. He sat in the vacant seat next to Hizashi and across from Hinata.
Hizashi spared a glance at Naruto and said quite serenely, "I heard you brought Hinata in after curfew last night. Nothing happened that my brother or I should know about I hope?" The light and seemingly carefree manner Hizashi asked his question was belied by a careful scrutiny of Narutos facial features and body language as he answered.
At the implication Naruto blushed as he glanced at the entire group in the dining room knowing that the wrong answer could get him seriously injured. "N-N-N-No sir… nothing happened we were training and time got away from us. Nothing happened last night; it was simply an odd coincidence that Hinata was a few moments late for her curfew. As I said last night to Hiashi-sama I am sorry I brought Hinata home late and wish I could have gotten her home in time for her curfew," With that Naruto looked down at his plate of food and swallowed it almost completely whole as he wanted to escape the possible mine field that the dining room was quickly becoming, and to escape to the safe haven known as school.
Naruto glanced briefly down at his plate after wolfing it down while still maintaining an acceptable pace and decorum. After he had cleared his plate he stood up quickly, he thanked Hiashi for the meal and allowing him to stay the night and proceeded to run back up the stairs to grab his and Hinatas books, which were on a table outside of her room.
As Naruto landed at the bottom of the stairwell after a leap of daring-do… at least it would have been if he were a civilian taking a leap from that height. Naruto merely smiled at Hinata and handed her the books he had gotten of hers. Hinata giggled at Narutos antics and began to walk out of the house after giving her father and sister each a hug and a kiss on the cheek and hugging her uncle and cousin.
Naruto and Hinata passed the guards outside the Hyuuga compound and then glanced at each other briefly before both breaking into a sprinting match. Naruto and Hinata each had mile wide grins plastered on their faces as they both responded to the unspoken challenge between them. Naruto himself had greater speed but he ran slightly slower than he could have, so that he was dead even with Hinata. It was astounding really, Hinata ran faster to stay even with Naruto and Naruto ran slower to stay even with Hinata.
The two sprinted almost all the way to the Academy, and slowed as the looming building came into view. With hands outstretched a resounding 'thunk' was heard as Naruto and Hinatas hands hit the building at the same time.
Naruto and Hinata looked at each other breathlessly and both broke out into mad giggles at the look of euphoria on the others face. Naruto managed to regain his composure first and got his breathing back under control as he waited for Hinata to regain her composure.
After Hinata had got her breathing and composure under control she looked at Naruto. "You know Naruto-kun we need to go around the front of the building. If we stay back here for much longer a teacher is bound to come out here and wonder how you and I ended up back here together and ask some questions that we might not want to answer."
"So what's the plan for today?" Naruto asked Hinata.
"Well since you had to put up with Sakura yelling yesterday I guess you can be spared the agony of having to listen to her voice today… unless you get really unlucky," Hinata said.
Naruto nodded his consent. Before Hinata could move from her spot and start around the school Naruto grabbed her hand and wrapped her into a quick embrace. "We do need to be at the front of the building soon, that's true, but can't we stay here like this for just a few minutes Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked. Naruto smirked as he felt Hinata rest her head against his chest, "So I guess that's a yes huh?"
After a few moments that felt like an eternity to the young almost ninja they broke apart and smiled at each other as Hinata went to the left and Naruto started to the right, so they wouldn't look like they were arriving at the same time.
OoOoO
Hinata walked around the final corner in the building and was that Ino and Sakura were as always fighting. Hinata openly grinned as she saw Ino slap Sakura and walk away. Hinata almost panicked as she saw the furious Ino storming toward her.
"Hey Hinata-chan," Ino greeted, "How's life treating you?"
Hinata smiled and began to relax as she saw that Ino was furious only at Sakura, "I'm doing fine Ino-chan. I'm pretty lucky I didn't get grounded last night, I got home from training past my curfew."
Ino smirked at hearing the news. "Wow Hinata that's something I'd never expect from you. Although last night around 10 I was looking out my window and I thought I saw you and Naruto jumping around the village as fast as you could go?"
Hinata gulped the knot that had suddenly appeared in her throat. "Well Ino I guess you need to know this then, apparently the lunch that they served at the academy yesterday was mixed with a mild hallucinogenic. Besides why would I be with Naruto? Come on Ino you know how I feel about Naruto… and you also know that I'm way too much of a coward to tell him how I feel."
Ino nodded slowly, "Yeah I know how you feel about Naruto… I still think that you should tell him how you feel about him. You know he'd probably return your feelings; he may act stupid sometimes but after what he did to Kiba yesterday I think he's holding something back. I'm not quite sure, and with Naruto who really is, but I think its something that he has a lot invested in," Ino nodded sagely at her own perceptiveness into Narutos deepest emotions and feelings.
"Yeah Ino I know Naruto would probably agree to go out with me… but he seems smitten with Sakura and I don't want to ruin his chances with her," Hinata said somewhat timidly.
"Well any guy that would pick Sakura over you is a total and complete baka. You just need some self confidence Hinata-chan," Ino said. Hinata nodded slightly and looked at the ground and twiddled her fingers together.
Suddenly the bell that signaled the beginning of the school day rang out over the school yard. Ino and Hinata smiled briefly at each other reveling in the important conversation they had just shared. They stayed out in the warm morning rays as long as they could before the final warning bell rang and they both jogged to the class room.
The final bell rang as Ino, Hinata, and Naruto all bolted into the room one right after the other in a single file line. Ino took a seat next to Alexis, a girl Ino knew very little about other than the fact that she was one of the few non-Sasuke fangirls in the class, and a small kind girl who had no qualms about voicing her opinions. Naruto and Hinata took seats directly beside each other, and secretly held hands under the table for the first half of the day.
OoOoO
The day had begun and everything was proceeding as per the status quo… until Mizuki asked Iruka why Kiba Inuzuka was absent for the day. Iruka quickly explained that Kiba had his pride, and a few vital organs, wounded in a spar and that he was too ashamed to attend school for the day. Mizuki nodded and let the question drop as he saw that Iruka wasn't going to divulge anymore information.
OoOoO
The day was half over as Iruka called the class to order. "Okay students since this is the day before the exam to test if you are ready to become ninja is due to happen then we are going to have an exam on transformation jutsu."
Everyone in the class moaned as the formed a straight and orderly line in the front of the class room and began transforming into exact replicas of Iruka or Mizuki. Many of the students created exact replicas and as such earned perfect marks and a comment such as, "Very good," or "Perfectly executed, well done."
As the rest of the class had already gone it was Naruto's turn to do the transformation jutsu. He stood at the front of the class room and began to mold his chakra slowly in an effort to make his clone look just right, visualizing it in his head as he felt his chakra reach just the right amount to transform. At the exact instant everything came together for Naruto he yelled "Transform!" and with a puff of smoke he transformed into a tall blonde man with a white trench coat with flame designs lining the bottom.
The entire room became hushed as everyone realized who the transformation was. Iruka and Mizuki were slack jawed at the sight of someone who they regarded as still the greatest Hokage to ever live.
Naruto cleared his throat as he saw the look on his teachers faces and felt the eyes of almost his entire class drilling into his back. "Um sensei? It's still me Naruto," With that Naruto released the transformation jutsu and in a cloud of smoke a slightly short for his age blonde in a garishly orange jumpsuit reappeared and it was this change that jolted Iruka and Mizuki out of their revere.
Iruka nodded and praised Naruto for his achievements in transforming so well into the Yondaime Hokage. Naruto felt a blush creeping up on his cheeks at the unaccustomed feeling of praise from an authority figure. Naruto turned to the class and saw that everyone still hadn't quite recovered from the shock of the unexpectedly perfect transformation. "What's wrong everybody?" Naruto asked the class rather pleasantly. "Did you not expect the dead last to be able to perform a perfect transformation jutsu?" Naruto asked with venom lacing his every word.
The entire class seemed to cringe as one being at the feeling of shame that stole over them. Many people in the class had in fact doubted that Naruto could pull off even a simple transformation jutsu, and after seeing the nearly perfect transformation into the likeness of the Yondaime Hokage they were all shocked beyond words, with the exception of two in the class.
Naruto made one last sweep of the room, making no attempt at hiding the contempt on his face, before making the short journey back to his seat. After sitting down for a few minutes he felt hot, warm breath on his neck. "You did really good Naruto-kun," Hinata said, "but next time maybe you could try to not make the whole class hate you, huh?"
Naruto merely growled and said, "I don't care if they hate me. At least if they hate me I get their recognition. I would rather be hated for who I really am than be loved for who someone has labeled me."
Hinata didn't say anything more, just sat back in her seat and looked at Naruto, wondering how he had gotten so hung up on the recognition of a village full of people who would just as soon kill him as praise him. Hinata merely sat back in her seat and watched Naruto out of the corner of her eye. During this she noticed his eyes glazed over multiple times, as though he was talking to the monster he had sealed into his stomach.
It was during one of the moments when Naruto was in his mindscape when Iruka called out, "Naruto I need you and Hinata to stay after class today. I need to talk to the both of you about something very important." Naruto did not hear Iruka, and Iruka realized this. Iruka managed to reign in his anger at his dead last student and merely got conformation from Hinata that she would make sure both of them would be staying after.
OoOoO
Naruto and Hinata were standing in front of one of the few people that knew their secret that was not family. Iruka smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile at his students before saying, "Naruto, Hinata the Hokage would like to see you at the Hokage tower after I release you from class." Iruka noted the look of betrayal obvious on Narutos face before continuing, "I did not tell him your secrets Naruto. He did however tell me that the two of you managed to enter the main part of the village last night, from a training ground, at a speed that surprised the ANBU on patrol that night. I will send word to your father Hinata that you are in an important meeting with the Hokage."
Naruto and Hinata both nodded their consent to their teacher and turned to walk out the door.
Iruka watched his students go with a pang of guilt. 'Forgive me Naruto, Hinata. If there had been any other way I could have warned the Hokage without revealing your secrets I would have.'