Chapter 13
Pre-note: If anyone wants to have actual conversations with me, you are free to chat with me at one of the many forums I frequent, including NarutoFan [dot] com, ViridianDreams, or especially, at the FFN forum I created to discuss the fics I'm working on. [ /myforums/J_R_LeDoux/139780/ ]
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Naruto was having trouble falling asleep. Between his first lesson in sealing with Jiraiya and his… encounter with Hinata in the kitchen, today had given him a lot to think about and it was making his mind race.
Seals were like a Pandora's Box for him. He was just discovering the tip of the iceberg, but already his thought was occupied with this whole new area of being a ninja. And he began to recognize that nearly all the great ninja he knew were versed at least moderately in sealing. Jiraiya, his father, Sora, Tsunade… all of them had at least a general ability to craft seals.
Then there was of course Hinata. Things had been… off the last couple of weeks. They'd had moments like the one in the kitchen, yet he'd get odd comments from her at seemingly random times, like when she had come to tell him Sora had arrived.
It was confusing to him in a way that nothing else ever had been. If anything else in his life had been this confusing before, he always had two options: he could simply avoid it altogether, or he could attack it directly.
But what little experience he did have with women seemed to tell him that neither of those things would work very well here. He didn't want to avoid her, and he didn't think that just asking her would end well… what if he was imagining things? She'd probably be upset.
He sighed heavily, bringing his arms up and putting his hands behind his head on the pillow, staring at the ceiling. It made more sense now, what older people always used to say, about being young and having a simple life. He found a part of himself wishing for that simple life right now… a life where he didn't have to worry about a crazy Uchiha prodigy trying to kill him, or about what his girlfriend was thinking.
A sound from his window made him jump and like lightning he flew out of his bed, grabbing a kunai from the night stand. A figure was right in front of his third story window and he squinted, trying to make out who it was. His mouth curled into a smile.
"Hina-chan…" Naruto said to himself. He walked over and opened the window, pulling her inside gently before closing it once more to keep the chilly night air out.
"Naru-kun…" She looked him in the eyes. She always felt as if her very essence could melt into those cool, blue eyes. "I'm sorry if I woke you."
"I wouldn't care even if I had been sleeping."
Naruto felt a bit self-conscious about the fact that he was just wearing his boxers and Hinata was dressed in her normal training attire. He looked up and down her figure. He was surprised at how he still found her beauty stunning, and how he often found a new thing about her that made her seem beautiful. Every so often it would feel as if he were seeing her for the first time again.
"I… couldn't sleep," Hinata said softly. "Is it alright… if I stay here?"
Naruto's features relaxed into a comforting smile and he pulled her into a tight embrace, her soft, long hair tickling his chest as she put her arms around him.
"Of course it is." He walked over and climbed into his bed, turning back at the girl who was simply looking at him, as if she wasn't sure what to do. "You can change into your nightgown in the bathroom," he said, trying to be helpful.
"Uh… well…" She looked down and twiddled her fingers in a motion he hadn't seen in a very long time. "I didn't bring one…"
Naruto looked at her dumbfounded for a moment. She would be very uncomfortable sleeping in her training clothing.
"Umm… you could borrow some of my clothes," Naruto offered. "Like a big shirt maybe?"
Hinata smiled, taking a few steps towards the bed. He was so sweet to her.
"I… I don't have to use any of your c-clothes," Hinata stammered haltingly.
"Then…" Naruto wasn't as dense as he used to be. "Hina-chan… I… we… I mean your father…"
"No," Hinata said, shaking her head. She seemed to get back some of her confidence. "I don't… we're not ready for… that… I just want to… be close."
Naruto nodded, a solemn expression on his face. Hinata reached the side of the bed and turned her back as she began pulling her jacket off her torso. Naruto shifted to turn around when Hinata glanced at him over her shoulder.
"It's okay, Naru-kun." She bit her lip as her hands fell to her side. "You… c-can look."
Naruto's mind was whirring as his eyes locked with hers, and he nodded again. She turned back around slowly and sat on the bed, reaching into her waist line and slowly sliding her comfortable training pants down her legs.
He was mesmerized. Her legs looked fantastic as her hands traveled across them, the moonlight bathing her body in an uneven blue that reminded him of her eyes. She stood up again and he felt his face flush as he saw her plain white panties. He knew she was probably blushing like mad as well.
She reached down again, her arms crossed, and pulled her shirt over her head. The way she looked as the shirt came off, revealing the wrap across her chest and the skin of her back, was beyond his description. Her hair pulled up as the shirt came over her head, giving him a rare glimpse of her bare shoulders before it began to fall, almost strand by strand, through the shirt and down her back. She slowly set the shirt to the side and paused, not turning back to him.
He was unsure if he should say something. Perhaps she was too nervous to lie down?
Her body stiffened slightly as she reached up and began to unwind the wrap around her chest. Naruto's eyes widened.
"Hina-chan," he squeaked. "You don't have to—"
"It's not good for girls to sleep with the wrap on," she said softly without even stopping or turning back to see him. Naruto was at a loss for words, and so he watched as a previously hidden part of her back slowly became visible, strip by strip.
With the way her hair fell down her body it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Soon he realized she was done as she dropped the wrapping tape to the side and her arms came up to the front of her body. She looked like she was shivering.
Naruto's protective instincts kicked in, and he crawled over to her, rising to his feet behind her shaking form. He put his arms around her waist and kissed her on the neck.
"You look incredible," he whispered into her ear. She turned in his arms slowly, her hands covering her breasts, and an unsure expression covering her red face.
"I do?" she asked softly. He bent down and gave her a few fluttering kisses on her lips.
"You do." He glanced down at her hands before looking back up to her eyes. "I'll turn around so that you can get under the covers."
"No," she replied, once again shaking her head. "I'm just… embarrassed… and nervous… but I want you to see… me."
Naruto's gaze hardened. He thought about trying to talk her out of it, as it was clearly wracking her nerves, but he saw that glint in her eye that this was something she wanted for herself, for whatever reason that may be. She had nothing to fear, he loved her.
Hinata closed her eyes tightly and stepped back, slowly removing her hands. Naruto's breath was shallow, and he felt as if his mind shut down. He'd never really been interested in a woman's breasts, though he knew well what they looked like from his days developing the Sexy no jutsu. But this was different.
Before he'd been befuddled as to why so many men seemed to find beauty in something that half of all people had, but as Hinata removed her hands, he finally understood. It was different. It was like seeing her the way she truly was, instead of the way other people saw her.
Her breasts curved into such perfect shapes, and the small pink nipples on each looked magnificent to him. Though he'd never be able to put into words why, it was so much more beautiful than any of the women he'd seen before.
He looked back up to her face as her hands rested by her side and saw her eyes still tightly shut. He smiled and stepped towards her, wrapping his arms around her back. She gasped in surprise and her eyes shot open as Naruto pulled her in, their bare skin touching in a way that made Naruto's breath catch in his throat. She put her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.
"You look amazing, Hina-chan." He pulled her a little tighter. "Amazing."
They slowly let go and looked into each other's eyes, and in that moment it was hard for each to not get caught up in the emotion they felt. Whether or not they were modest, their bodies knew what to do, and Naruto's was making him uncomfortably aware of what was supposed to happen next.
"Kiss me," Hinata said softly. "Please."
Naruto smiled warmly as he bent over, his right hand reaching up behind her neck. Their lips locked in a type of passion that Naruto hadn't thought Hinata capable of, and for a period of time the world seemed to melt away, and each of them forgot about where they were and how they looked.
Naruto pulled away breathing deeply, and he looked at her swollen lips realizing that she was breathing heavily as well. His mind was moving faster than he could put into words, and he bent down, putting his arms behind her legs and sweeping her up into his grasp, bridal style. She let out a soft shriek of surprise as she left her feet, her arms instantly finding their way around his neck as he walked both of them over to his bed.
He kissed her again before setting her down and crawling on top of her, his body hovering over hers, propped up on his knees and hands. Her hair was splayed out behind her, and her mouth was slightly parted, and he was certain that no one could ever look as beautiful as the woman before him.
"I love you," he said softly, gazing into her eyes.
"I love you too."
He bent over and their eyes fluttered shut as they began to kiss again, this time more slowly, savoring the feeling of each other's lips. Naruto slowly lowered his body onto hers unconsciously, as more and more of his mind became preoccupied with kissing her, until suddenly they felt a poke around the midsection and both jumped apart.
"Was that—"
"Yes," Naruto said, cutting her off as his face erupted in red. He crawled under the covers on his side of the bed and glanced at Hinata's face, wondering if she'd be upset with him. Instead she seemed intrigued, if a little embarrassed. But if she did have a question she kept it to herself, as she pulled the covers over her body as well and cuddled up to him.
She put her arm around his chest and leaned against him, using his own chest as her pillow. Her legs entwined themselves with his, and he soon found himself with his arms around her in perhaps the most comfortable position he'd ever been.
He could feel her breasts on his torso and her cotton panties against his leg. He looked down at her and saw only the blue hair of the top of her head. Naruto smiled.
"What is it?" she asked smoothly. It sounded as if she were very relaxed.
"They're very soft," he said. She snapped her head up to look at him, surprise in her eyes, before a shy blush crossed her face and she buried her face in his chest again.
"Thank you," came the muffled reply.
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
"You better hurry up with that," Sora said absently. "Hinata will be here for her training soon." Yasu glanced up at the younger girl before returning to the scroll in front of her.
"I'll have time," she said. A few moments of silence passed between them before Yasu spoke up again, never taking her eyes off of the various equations. "How is your research going?"
"Well," Sora began, putting down her brush. "It's complicated. I think I've found a way to purify the chakra from the fox, but I don't know how to accomplish that."
"Let me see," Yasu said, putting her scroll aside and looking at her friend's work. In their days as the d'Gra Klesha they'd often found themselves just like this, passing notes between each other to try and find the epiphany that would lead them to an answer.
Yasu looked over Sora's newest notes, her brows furrowed.
"Love, huh?" Yasu glanced at Sora. "I thought you didn't believe in that kind of thing."
"Yeah well…" Sora trailed off, a bit uncomfortable. "Maybe I believe in it for other people."
If she was truthful, Sora would say that the last eight months had impacted her more than the rest of her time with Naruto and Hinata. After losing Nori things had been very chaotic, but living with ninja it also became very different. Sora was used to being around ninja, and ninja guarded emotion. Whether by blocking it out, or by portraying a false emotion, all ninja showed very little genuine emotion as a rule.
Naruto had surprised her in that regard. He was a very good ninja, especially for his age, yet he felt no need to guard his emotions. Even now, he had simply learned to control his actions… he still didn't really guard his emotions.
But after Nori had died, none of the people around her had been guarded. Yasu had been a mess, a truly emotional wreck, and it was a type of blatant emotion that Sora hadn't seen from her. Naruto had of course been very easy to read in that regard, but Hinata had as well, which surprised her. Hinata had become very good at guarding her emotion as that had been a critical part of her becoming a better ninja.
No… those last six months together, and then the two months after Naruto and Hinata had left, were different for Sora. She'd been surrounded by emotionally expressive people who had very strong emotions to express. And a long-silent part of her had begun to surface, a part she thought her father had killed long ago.
"Seems a bit romantic for you," Yasu said. "Conquering evil with love?" Sora began to turn slightly red, whether from embarrassment or simple teasing.
"Look, if it works, it works. Besides, the Kaze's work on Intention clearly shows that chakra responds to emotions like this. I don't think what I'm proposing is that much of a stretch."
"You're right," Yasu said, nodding. "All you need now is the correct seal array."
"I almost have it. I want to get as much of the array done as possible before I consult Jiraiya, the lecherous bastard." Sora glanced down at Yasu's discarded scroll. "What about you? How's your project coming?"
Yasu put down Sora's scroll and considered her own for a second before heading a heavy sigh. The project was driving her a bit mad, but in a strange way it made her feel more normal. It had been through working on this that she'd finally come to terms with Nori's death, though she knew she was walking a fine line between dedication and vengeance. Nori would not have wanted her to waste away for the sake of killing a single Uchiha.
"I know the principal, the problem is more in the medium. Many seals exist to deal with bloodlines, and some of them are very well documented, but what I'm doing is a little different, and I don't know of anyone who found a successful medium to apply such seals towards the Sharingan."
"Hmmm." Sora picked up Yasu's scroll and looked it over. "If only Minato was here. He always seemed to know mediums so well." Her eyes paused on an interesting note. "Wait… is this right? The part about how you'll have to apply the seal?"
Yasu looked away from her friend, a bit unsettled. It was rather drastic the steps she'd have to go through, but she was willing to do what was necessary.
"Yes."
"Yasu," Sora began, setting down the scroll. "Putting seals across your forehead and on your eyes is dangerous. What if it affects your brain? What if you're tattooing your eyes and something goes wrong, and you can never see again?"
"I have faith in the people who will help me," Yasu said. "Nothing will go wrong with applying the seal."
Sora looked back at the scroll and sighed. This was such a pain. Both of them startled slightly at the sound of the front door opening.
"I'm here!" Hinata's voice called out from the hallway. They glanced at each other before Yasu got up and walked over to her student, leading them both out into the backyard.
Sora sighed and went into the kitchen. All this studying was making her hungry.
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Naruto adjusted his forehead protector self-consciously, a bit nervous. He looked down at the younger boy in front of him. He had the same messy brown hair he'd come to know, but over the last few months his demeanor had changed. He acted more focused.
"Well Daisuke, class is finally over, and now we can start training." The younger boy looked at him hopefully. "Did you fill out the paper?"
Daisuke nodded, holding out his hand with a single sheet of paper in it.
"Why did I have to get that form filled out to train?"
"The Hokage wanted to make sure…" Naruto trailed off. There were several reasons. Tsunade wanted his caretakers to know that the 'demon child' would be training him. She also wanted this to go down in the village log as Naruto being a real instructor. "She wanted to make sure that all the paperwork was filled out. For the village records."
Naruto reached into his back pocket and pulled out a scroll, handing it to the younger boy.
"This is your first task. It's 100 jutsu that you need to learn before we can do anything other than taijutsu training. Practice it in your spare time, but for now, we're going to go over the first katas of the Shino-Tsu-Hiko form. The fighting style of the Kaze."
Daisuke smiled at that. He was very anxious to learn anything he could about the Kaze, and he wanted to know their fighting style when he was finally able to go there someday.
"First, I need to teach you the stances we didn't cover at the academy."
Naruto spent the next hour or so teaching him the basics that he was lacking. It was made easier by the fact that the younger boy already had learned most of the basics to the form. After they had covered all the essentials, Naruto showed him the first kata, and instructed him to practice it while he watched.
Daisuke was actually very good for a beginner. Naruto was impressed, but he wasn't about to tell his student that. Telling a student that they were gifted led to people like Sasuke. But Naruto also knew that never acknowledging success led to the childhood he'd experienced. Throughout his brief stint teaching at the academy, Naruto had learned to strike a middle ground where he made sure to encourage every student while letting them know that they were still far from finished.
Naruto sighed as he watched the boy go through the form for the fourth time, and pulled out the scroll that Jiraiya had given him. Later tonight was his second lesson, and it would be on mediums. Naruto studied the scripts on the page, glancing up to make sure Daisuke was doing alright.
Reading and writing had always been a pain for him. Not that he was illiterate, but written works always seemed to confuse him. For some reason, staring at the scroll, he didn't feel that way at all. The scroll seemed to jump out at him and reveal its secrets as he went over every stroke.
He supposed that part of it was his improved memory, which he had Sora to thank for. He'd spent a lot of time reading there, but it had still seemed annoying. Naruto was quickly discovering that he rather liked seals however, and his mind drifted slowly to the idea of mediums. I wonder what kind of medium ramen would make?
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Hinata moved through her forms with grace, making the Shina-To-Be look more like a dance than a fighting style. Yasu watched from the side, a critical eye silently critiquing every mistake.
They were in Naruto's backyard, which Hinata was surprised to find remarkably maintained. As it turns out, landscaping had been something the village had kept up with on the house since the Fourth's death, and the result was quite spectacular.
The back of the house had a small covered porch made of finished wood that led out into a grassy area with bamboo encircling it on all sides. There were several beautiful shrubs near the house and the fence, and in the back corner was a koi pond with a bamboo fountain slowly trickling water into it.
The ground was soft and flat, and Hinata had been working with Yasu on her form, eager to make sure she didn't lose her skill in the form since returning to Konoha.
"Very good," Yasu said as Hinata finished her form. "You've improved since you came back."
Hinata was thrilled to hear that, and turned to look at Sora who was watching to practice from the porch. She nodded to the Hyuuga then went back inside.
This had been Minato's house and there were so many familiar parts to it. She hadn't really had the chance to ask, but she got the impression that Naruto had been too overwhelmed to really look through the house when he'd gotten here, and she wanted to see what was left of the house she remembered.
She climbed the stairs to the second floor, walking into a room that the Fourth had used for sealing practice. It was square and almost featureless except for the small table in the center and the small scroll shelf in the corner.
Sora saw a single scroll on the shelf and walked up to it, curiosity getting the better of her. It didn't look as if Naruto had been in this room, so she doubted whether the scroll was his. Sure enough the scroll had a seal on the front that she was all too familiar with: one of Minato's blood seals.
She put the scroll in her pocket and left the room. She'd have to show this to Naruto when he came home later. After all, he was the only one that could open it.
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, sitting in the lotus position across from Jiraiya. Between them was the stone slab that they'd used for the first lesson. Naruto could only surmise that it was in fact for instruction in seals, but he'd never seen anyone here, and had never been here before yesterday.
Jiraiya was making some sort of note in a little pad of his, and Naruto suspected that it was something perverted, but sat calmly, understanding that it could also be a test. He didn't have time to fight over training methods and how unfair they might be… if that was the case. The breeze blew softly and Jiraiya stowed his pad, producing the ink well and brush from behind him.
"Today we will talk about mediums. I touched briefly on what a medium was, and how it was unique, but today we will discuss how to prepare a medium, and go more in depth about why they matter. Did you bring the scroll?" Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled it out, setting it between them. Jiraiya nodded. "Good. This will hold your notes. I may add something to it every lesson, and you can keep it and study it whenever you want.
"Now…" Jiraiya dipped the brush and opened the scroll to a blank spot. He made several quick strokes and set the brush back down. "Medium. The first character, 'bai', means 'go-between' or 'intermediary'. The second character, 'tai', means 'body' or 'substance'. This is the function that a medium performs. Did you ever learn the purpose behind hand seals?"
"Of course," Naruto said confidently. "It helps you mold chakra into a complex pattern."
"Yes," Jiraiya said, nodding. "A bit simplistic, but yes. Written seals act much like hand seals do. They take chakra and mold it into complex patterns. The difference is in how complex. The simplest seals, such as an explosive tag, mold chakra just as complexly as ninjutsu dozens of hand seals long.
"The reason ninjas use their hands to form seals is because they can easily mold chakra through their hands. The purpose of a medium is to allow a ninja to mold chakra through the written seals." Jiraiya paused to make sure Naruto was keeping up. The blond simply nodded. "Surprisingly few substances are naturally capable of doing this, and vanishingly few are good at it.
"Preparing a medium involves putting in a bit of chakra and fusing it to the natural elements within the medium. Naruto." The boy stiffened a bit. "How would just this aspect of sealing limit someone's ability to copy a seal?"
Naruto lowered his head for a moment, bringing his hand up to his chin and pondering the question.
"Well, I guess since you bind your chakra, it might be difficult for someone with a very different chakra pattern to use a seal written with that medium."
"That's correct," Jiraiya said, nodding. "What else?"
"I don't know," Naruto replied shrugging.
"You bind it to the natural elements in the medium. Not everyone has the same elemental affinity, and because of that, people with different elemental affinities will produce slightly different mediums, even if using the same substance and having similar chakra patterns.
"For most seals, such a difference won't affect the function, but for some of the more complex ones, it could prevent it from working at all, or cause it to go horribly wrong." Naruto seemed eager at this idea. Seals sounded like an almost limitless world of wonder, where his unparalleled imagination could be a huge asset. "Why use seals instead of ninjutsu, besides it being more difficult to steal?"
"Well," Naruto began, having already thought of this, "if seals allow you to mold chakra in very, very complex patterns, then it would allow you to use more and more specific jutsu. You could control the outcome much easier, and spend less chakra doing it."
Jiraiya smiled. It wasn't his pervy smile that Naruto knew all-too-well, or his fake smile that he often wore. It was a genuine smile of approval, and it made Naruto swell with happiness. In some ways, it felt more special when he impressed someone who he had to earn that from.
For Jiraiya though it was almost like teaching Minato. No other student except Naruto had been as quick to pick up his instruction on seals.
"Alright. Take the brush and write notes out. I'm going to teach you the basics of how to prepare a medium."
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Hinata moved fluidly, flowing through the form as she had never been able to before. A part of her wondered if she'd always been this capable with the Jyuuken, or if it was something that she'd been prepared for by learning the Shina-To-Be.
In fact, now that she had returned Hinata saw many things about the Jyuuken that she could use, and although it would be difficult for others in the clan to accept, that she could improve on.
"Hinata-sama," an unfamiliar voice called out from the nearby door. She stopped practicing and turned to face the speaker, a branch family member. "The council has sent me to retrieve you. They wish to speak with you immediately." Hinata sighed.
"Very well." She put on her robe, which she always took off to train, and followed the man down the corridors as he led her to a room she had hardly ever been to. He bowed and left, as her hand hovered over the handle, before finally heading in.
"Ah, Lady Hinata. Thank you for joining us." She glanced at the man. It was one of the eldest members of the council, Taiyo.
"To what do I owe this honor?" Hinata asked simply. No one was summoned at a whim. She glanced over to her father who looked impassive.
"Many of us could not help but notice the time you spend with the jinchuuriki." Hinata's eyes narrowed… she didn't like where this was heading.
"I see," she said simply. A heavy silence fell across the room. "Was there a question?" Taiyo glared at her before answering.
"A question of sorts." He glanced at the other council members before proceeding. "We have become aware of several nights where you've been unaccounted for. Naturally, someone in such a prestigious position as yourself knows better than to risks the clan's honor."
"Naturally," Hinata replied softly, trying to control her emotions. Anger and fear were two of her strongest, and she felt a great deal of both right now.
"We wouldn't dare to suggest that one so honored as yourself would… sully our honor with impropriety…"
"Oh really?" Hinata asked in an even tone. The implication was quite clear.
"Quite. However, we feel at a loss as for how to explain such absences and felt we should hear from you before we made any decisions on how to proceed."
Hinata paused, thinking carefully. This was a high-powered game of politics they were putting her into. This was as much a test of her worthiness as it was an attack on her honor. Her response would be very important.
Her first impulse was to simply say nothing. To just stay quiet until they got bored of asking. It was, after all, none of their business if she spent nights at Naruto's. Yet, that was not an option. Such a response would let the council know that they could bully her, and would make it impossible for her to ever truly be the head of the clan.
She glanced up at her father, studying the expression on his face. He seemed… weary. She wasn't sure if it was because of her or the council. But either way, he did seem rather interested in her answer.
"You say yourself that I spend time with… the jinchuuriki… is that not what you are suggesting?"
The members of the council looked between each other nervously. They were walking a fine line right now. Hiashi's eyes focused at her response.
"Perhaps more important than who you spend time with is how you spend time," Taiyo said carefully. "A clan heir must be… pure."
"Do you honestly want to hear from me on this issue, or is this simply a charade?" Hinata asked, lowering her voice. "Does what I say matter?"
Hiashi's eyes twinkled at that answer. The rest of the council bristled, and several people launched into responses at once. It was a brilliant answer, really. It forced the council to give her opinion weight, no matter their position or agenda, by challenging their honor. Taiyo raised his hands and quieted the room.
"I assure you we are listening."
Hinata nodded slowly, heaving a sigh. This was a rather public place to be talking about such things. No doubt that was on purpose. By having the full council there Taiyo had probably felt he would be able to intimidate Hinata into revealing a truth he strongly suspected. It was perhaps a small irony that the truth was more mundane, if a little personally embarrassing.
This was another part of the game, she realized. The embarrassment would reinforce the idea that the council could control her and her actions, and that she was subordinate to them. While not strictly speaking true, according to tradition, the council often wrestled silently with the clan head for power within the clan, no unlike the Hokage and the village council often did.
"Many of these nights I was deep in my own training, preparing for upcoming matches and the Jounin exam. Each time I fell asleep where I was training, then returned the next morning."
Hinata felt proud of herself at the answer. Strictly speaking it was true. Every time she'd spent the night at Naruto's, she'd been training there.
"And what of the jinchuuriki? Has that remained respectable?" It was a bit more blunt of a question than the council usually asked, but then, Hinata was being difficult.
Her features steeled into a sort of frustration. She had grown much more independent while she'd been away, and a part of her felt that no one had the right to control her life in this way, and that part was rather upset at the council.
"It has remained as respectable as I've desired." The silence that followed was total. No one moved or made any attempt to reply for several seconds.
"As respectable as you've desired?" Taiyo repeated back. "What do you mean by that?"
"It means that it is my responsibility to concern myself with that."
Again the room fell silent. She was still being partially diplomatic about it, but the message was clear: it was none of their business.
"Are you suggesting that we leave such things up to the purview of a child such as yourself?"
"Child?" Hinata asked, losing her grip on her emotions slightly. "Perhaps you have forgotten the match with Neji, councilor."
"Are you threatening me?" Taiyo nearly shouted. "Do you have no respect for our clan? For our tradition?"
"Do you?" Hinata replied, her tone becoming more acidic. "Is it tradition to interrogate heirs? Do branch members traditionally question the purity of the main family?"
The council remained silent, suitably cowed by her response. She took a deep breath and continued, slightly more composed.
"How far has our clan fallen that our place within the village relies on the propriety of the clan heir, and not on the quality of fighters which we produce." She paused to let that sentence fully impact them. "Perhaps the council should be more concerned about why such a matter is important, instead of simply that it is.
"I am doing everything I do with my position in mind. That is the only answer I will give on this issue."
The council members looked between each other for a moment, but Hiashi's eyes were locked on his daughter. She was fiery and strong-willed, two words that he would never have used to describe her before. And more importantly, her words struck true. Perhaps she was as concerned about the clan as she had been saying.
"Very well, that's all we need to know." Hinata bowed slowly and began to leave before pausing and slowly turning. The council members all addressed her curiously. Surely she didn't wish to further discuss matters.
"Before I leave I wanted to let you know: this clan, and this village, are changing. You cannot control that. All you can do is change with it. I suggest you do." She bowed once more and left swiftly, the council once more stunned into silence.
Hiashi watched his eldest daughter leave with no small amount of curiosity.
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
"I'm home!" Naruto called out as he walked in the door. He walked down the hall and into the kitchen to get a drink of water as Sora walked slowly into the room and watched him. He took a few gulps and set down his cup, looking at her oddly. "What's going on?"
"I found something today," Sora said, pulling a scroll out of her pocket. She tossed it to Naruto. It had an unfamiliar script on the front that was unmistakably part of a seal. Naruto examined it for a moment. The medium appeared to be some sort of wax that was stamped onto the scroll. "It's your father's." Naruto's head jerked up.
"How do you know that?" Sora nodded at the scroll, walking over and pointing at the seal on the front.
"This," she said. "It's one of your father's blood seals. You're the only one that can open it." Naruto looked once again at the script in wonder.
"Where did you find it?"
"In your father's sealing room." That got Naruto's attention as well.
"He had a sealing room in the house?"
"Follow me," Sora said. They walked up the stairs and into a room Naruto had never ventured into before. His eyes fell to the table in the middle of the room, the tatami mat floor colored by the wealth of natural lighting from the south facing window. It was a perfect room for him to practice sealing.
Sora walked over to the table and sat down, cross-legged. Naruto paused, looking at the scroll in his hand, before sitting across from her. He set the scroll down between them and looked up at her.
"How do I open it?"
"A drop of blood here," she said, pointing to the script. "Then activate the seal."
Naruto nodded. He bit his thumb, pressing it onto the seal and pushing chakra through it. Almost instantly he could feel the heat below his thumb as the seal dissolved away, and the scroll rolled open slightly. He picked it up and rolled it out so that he could read it easier.
Naruto,
I don't have much time now. I wish I was there right now to tell you all of this, but it seems that my life will be a short one, if not happy while it lasted.
I'm leaving you all of my library, which is in my sealing room. To open it, go to the farthest wall, and in the middle swipe blood across the blank tile then activate it. You won't be able to see it, but there's a seal there that will activate and let you in.
Below that was a diagram explaining where the seal was located. Naruto looked up at Sora who had finished reading and they both looked over at the wall, instantly spotting the tile in question. Naruto stood up and walked over, swiping his still cut thumb across the wall before pressing his palm into it and activating the hidden seal.
The back wall began to glow and slowly disappeared, leaving an open space nearly twice as large as the room had been. In it were hundreds of scrolls. Naruto and Sora gaped as they looked at the vastness of the library. There were shelves upon shelves of scrolls, all filled. There were even scrolls on the ground. Some were large, like the forbidden scroll he'd stolen to become a Genin. Others were pocket sized.
"Wow," Sora said breathlessly. Naruto agreed. He'd never seen anything like it before. His eyes scanned the room, wondering where to start, when he spotted one of the larger scrolls, about two feet wide, with his name on it.
He walked over and picked it up, turning it over. Open alone, it said below his name. He glanced up at Sora who was walking around the space, digging into the library.
"Why don't you look around," Naruto said. "I've got to read this." Sora looked at him, then at the scroll in his hand and nodded.
He left, heading up to his room on the third floor and closed the door, taking a deep breath. What would this scroll contain?
He slowly unfurled it and instantly spotted the storage seal that was there. It had some text below and he began to read it.
Son,
I'm sorry that it came to this. Tomorrow I'm going to seal a demon into you, if everything goes as planned. Your mother wouldn't have approved but… I think she understands. She died just yesterday giving birth.
I imagine you're wondering why I did it. Why I chose you to seal the demon into. The truth is that it is a selfish decision. Your mother is already gone, and I will be soon. In this chaos I'm never going to be able to reveal your parentage to the village, so you'll be alone in the world. By doing this I can ensure you survive. I couldn't bear the thought of you dying because of my sacrifice.
I hope that the villagers understand, and treat you as the hero you are, but I suspect that won't be the case. If not, I'm sorry for that. I would think that you are probably a little angry at me for it.
In this scroll I'm going to try and tell you the things that I won't be able to tell you when the time comes. First I'd like to tell you about your mother.
Her name is Kushina, but everyone knows her by her fighting name, Nanashi. She was a wonderful person, a real idealist who believed that everyone deserved to be saved. That everyone deserved a chance at life.
She came from out west, just like me, from a long gone clan of ninjas who were renowned in their ability with the sword. She was no exception. They were called the Tsukito… the Moon People.
With her was a young girl that she considered a daughter who was called Sora. She was sent to the Kaze in the west when the demon was reported to be approaching. If you can, find her. She is the closest thing you have to family now. Her past was complicated and tragic, and I won't explain anything about her clan. You must ask her about it.
Oddly, I am also from a clan in the West. The Sannin Jiraiya found me when I was a baby in some rubble, the only survivor. During my time with your mother I discovered the clan I came from. They had been destroyed by greed and corruption, but I was able to preserve many of their scrolls in my library.
Many people will tell you I was a Seal Master, Naruto. But this was not by accident. The clan we came from had a special quality to them. Nearly everyone from that clan was attuned to scrolls. They were known in the west for being able to construct terribly complicated scrolls in short amounts of time, which they were only able to do because of their ability.
I don't know quite how it works, and neither did they. But when I sit in front of a scroll, it's almost as if the scripts talk to me. When I prepare a medium, it is almost as if I know the very properties themselves of the substance.
From everything I gathered, it is not a blood line. It is simply an attunement, like an elemental affinity. I believe others could be taught this attunement, or acquire it over time, but alas, that is another of my theories that I have run out of time to test.
Several of the scrolls in my library will make little sense without this ability. They are constructed in such a way that one is nearly required to be attuned to seals in order to decipher them. If you have this ability also, they will show you how to refine it.
In the storage seal is my diary. I know your mother kept one, but I was never able to get it from her. If you find Sora she might be able to help you find it. I've also included some instruction scrolls to help you become a better ninja, if that's what you've decided to do.
I love you, and I hope you can forgive me for what I'm about to do.
Minato Uzumaki
Naruto sat, stunned. Tears were forming in his eyes and he read through the entire thing again. It was the first thing either of his parents had written directly to him, and he could almost hear a warm, gentle voice saying the words as he read.
He wiped his eyes and looked at the storage scroll. He had been able to read through his mother's diary, and it had helped him know her better. Now it was time to learn about his dad.
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
"Please remain still," the man said plainly. He wore large glasses, and a confident smirk.
"I am always still, Kabuto," Sasuke replied. The medic nin chuckled briefly, giving the younger ninja a shot before taking some measurements using a medical jutsu.
"It is almost time," the medic said casually. "How do you feel about going back to Konoha? You'll be able to see Naruto and Sakura."
"I don't care," the stoic Uchiha replied. "They are from my past. Something from childhood to forget about."
Kabuto continued taking his measurements, letting silence persist between them for a few seconds. Orochimaru was very specific about the things he needed to learn.
"And Konoha?"
The Uchiha turned to the medic, the faintest glimmer of fire in his eyes.
"They will receive their punishment."
:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::xxxx:::::
Author's Note: Well this chapter is LONG and was done QUICKLY. Don't get used to it. ~_^
I have to say, I have been wrestling with how to approach the physical aspect of Naruto and Hinata's relationship for a while. I'm still not sure if we'll ever see a lemon in this story. They're about 16 now, which is still a bit young. Regardless, the first scene in this chapter was necessary, and I hope everyone enjoyed it.
Before I get a bunch of groans about the last scene, what I'm doing in the last scene is NOT supposed to be a bloodline, and we'll see over the course of the story how it differs. I have to reveal a lot more about the nature of chakra before it will really make sense, but we're on our way.
Please let me know what you think. I'm not a review whore, but I do kind of enjoy it when readers engage the story critically. The best reviews I ever get are from people who have ideas about what's going to happen next, or have specific things that they like. It lets me know that the story was good enough that parts of it stuck in their mind.
As I said in the last chapter… over 650 people have this story on alerts, and about 40 people review it per chapter (sometimes more). Usually about 1 out of every 100 people that read a chapter leave a review. It doesn't take much time, so go ahead and leave one. ~_^
Also, if you leave a signed review I try to respond to it. I obviously can't really respond to reviews from people who say "Awesome!", but when people ask questions I try and reply to their reviews.
Lastly, I know there's been some fanart based on Twice Shy. If anyone would like to send me a link to any Twice Shy inspired fanwork I'll be sure to pass that along for everyone else to see.