'Promise'

Chapter 5: The Do's & Don't's of being a Ninja

The beautiful smell of lunch wafted throughout the apartments.
Keitaro Urashima was in his room, his stomach growling in response to the smell of good food invading his personal space.

Grimacing, he looked at the assignment on his desk that Tokyo University had set him to do over the next week. "I'm going to need Naru's help with this one." He sighed. "It's way too hard to do on my own."
Just as he was pondering how he would ask the girl for help, the door to his room slid open furiously.

"Keitaro!!" Naru's voice bellowed through his room.

"Hello Naru. I was just going to look for you actually, I..."

"Whatever it is, it can wait! We have a situation, and I really need the 'landlord' to co-operate." Naru's heavy breathing and angry words warned him of trouble. Something was wrong and was going to completely ruin his plans for the afternoon.

"What's the situation then?"

Naru took a moment to catch her breath, leaning on his door frame for support. Looking up at him with her deep brown eyes, he was surprised to see a little bit of worry inside of them.

"We have a visitor at the apartment. It's a guy and it's one of Sakura's friends from that school she goes to. He's requesting that he sees Naruto Uzumaki, although he didn't say why. And his name is Sasuke Uchiha."

...

Having recovered from the baffling morning he'd just had, Naruto was on the roof of the Hinata Apartments, trying to figure out what was going on. His mind was full of what had happened the night before, and the morning after.

He was sitting cross legged, trying to concentrate, when a voice called out throughout the Hinata Apartments.

"Lunch is ready!" Shinobu's timid voice was carried by the echo, and the wind. Without a second thought, Naruto darted from the roof and raced throughout the building.
He was sitting at the dining room table, five seconds after starting from the roof.

Strangely though, somebody had beaten him to the table. A certain blue-haired Hyuuga princess, who was waiting patiently for the others to arrive before digging into her lunch.

"Oh, hello Naruto." Hinata cheerfully waved at him.

"Hello Hinata..." He wasn't quite sure what to think of Hinata. Back in Konoha, she was a shy girl who could barely form a sentence with words, unless she was absolutely determined about something. This Hinata was a lot more outgoing, but still shared the same timidness she had back home. She reminded him of Shinobu in more ways then one.

One thing was for sure. She had no problem talking to him in this world.

"So how was your day, Naruto?" She smiled at him as the others started walking through the door. Sakura and Kyoko both walked in last, both looking extremely annoyed about something.

Keeping a worried eye on the pair of them, he replied. "It was alright. Just another day trying to figure out who I am, what I'm doing here, and where I am exactly. Although I think I'm close to figuring out an answer for all three of them."

"I'm glad." She replied, just as Sakura and Kyoko both began to noisily devour their food. It sounded like they were racing to see who would suffer indigestion first. It was unnerving for him, as he was sure something was up. And it was almost definitely related to him in some way or another.

Hinata was also looking at the two girls with a worried look. Her eyes quickly glanced at him, he grimaced back as a way of saying it would soon turn ugly. A small smile appeared on her face briefly, although her eyes were still full of worry. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of the two girls throwing down their chopsticks.

"Thank you for the food." They said in unison, staring at each other with hatred. As much as he wanted to soothe the tension in the room, he was actually afraid of what the girls would do to him if he opened his mouth. Unfortunately it was Shinobu who took the bullet.

"My, you girls ate quickly. Can I get you some more?"

The two girls didn't say anything. They were still staring at each other, clutching the table as hard as they could.
Shinobu looked at the two girls, worry beginning to flood her eyes as well.

"um, girls?"

"That's it!"

Sakura was the one who spoke, or rather, bellowed across the table first. Naruto could feel killer intent in the room, and it was terrifying him.

"Just drop it! So what about this morning! You shouldn't be so clingy with him, you're not the only one who loves him!"

He suddenly realised what she was talking about, and leant his head on the table. His day had just gone from confusing, to downright chaos. He just wanted to be anywhere but where he was right now.

Kyoko wasn't taking any of it.

"I don't care, he's mine! I've known him since he was a small child! We literally grew up together!
I'm not going to let a brat like you take him away from me!"

"A brat like me!? That's it!" Sakura grabbed Kyoko by the hair and dunked her face in what was left of the chilli dip. Kyoko's penetrating scream echoed throughout the apartments, howling like a demon.
Her face was now covered in spicy sauce, and some of it had gotten into her eyes. Tears spilled out from her closed eyelids, as she clawed at her face, trying to wipe away the sauce.

"It stings... Naruto, help me!!" She was sobbing while dabbing her face and eyes with a napkin. Sakura still wasn't finished, bringing her arm back while she prepared to throw a punch.

"Sakura!" Naruto stood up, and was about to jump on the girl to prevent it from happening, when he heard the distinct whistle of a kunai rip through the air, in between the two girls.
Sakura immediately took a step back. Naruto looked behind him, to see who threw the kunai.

He wasn't expecting to see Hinata with her arm outstretched.

As she lowered her arm, she looked at the two girls. She sighed and looked at Naruto. "Take Kyoko to the kitchen. Help her wash her eyes out with the fresh water." He nodded, walking over to the girl. She was still sobbing in pain.

"It's gonna be okay. Lets get that stuff out of your eyes." He led the girl into the kitchen. The two were quickly followed by a terrified Shinobu.

That left the rest of the occupants of the house, minus Naru and Keitaro gaping at what had just happened. Sakura was still staring at Hinata, a terrified look on her face.
On the other hand, Hinata wore a face of determination.

"Why did you do that, Sakura?"

Sakura's expression changed from terror, to shame. She looked at the floor, feeling ashamed of herself.

"I..."

"You really hurt her, y'know? And you could have blinded her..."

"I know..."

"And not only that, you were going to finish her off too... That's terrible Sakura."

"But I..."

"Why were you so angry? Something must have happened to make you this angry."

Sakura didn't reply. Tears began rolling down her face, slowly dripping on floor with a soft pat. With a cry, she ran out of the room, sliding the door shut with a bang behind her. The sound of footsteps began racing upstairs as Sakura ran crying to her room.

"I think I might be able to answer that one, Hinata." Naruto came back from the kitchen, his arm around Kyoko's shoulders. Her face was slightly red, and her eyes a bit bloodshot, but she seemed fine otherwise. Albeit, she looked like she was about to cry again.

"It's my fault. They were fighting over me, and that's why Sakura did what she did."

"But Naruto..."

Naruto shook his head. "I think Kyoko has something to say as well."

The fire-headed girl nodded, and wiped her eyes. Looking up at the others, she cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. Me and Sakura had an argument earlier." Her eyes looked down at her shoes. "I said a lot of...mean things to her. We were just so angry, and it was because we both want Naruto..."

Several occupants of the room gasped. Naruto tried to look as though this was news to him, and failed miserably. Shinobu, who was standing behind Naruto and Kyoko, looked as though she was about to faint.

Kyoko bowed apologetically the everyone. "I'm really sorry everyone. I've caused everyone a lot of trouble, and it's not right. I'm going to go find Sakura and apologise to her." And with that she left the room, running up the stairs after Sakura.

Everybody's eyes turned to Naruto.

"It looks like your in trouble now. There's two of them after you." Kitsune said. "And just your luck they're the two violent girls of the apartments, second to Naru.

"Never mind about that now." Naruto looked over at Hinata. "You used a kunai. That must mean your a ninja."

Hinata shook her head. "Unfortunately, I'm not. I can't really fight at all, I'm useless in combat. I was once taught by someone how to use kunai, but..." Her eyes looked away. "He left, without teaching me how to actually fight."

"Oh..." Naruto sounded disappointed. He was hoping that Hinata could still remember her old life. As a Leaf kunoichi.

Hinata continued. "The only thing I have left is this." She put her her hands together, creating a hand sign.

"Byakugan!"

The veins around her eyes pulsed, while the eyes themselves focused. Naruto stood, watching her use her kekkai genkai that he recognised so well.

"With this I have an almost 360 degree field of vision, and can see for approximately two kilometres."

The others in the room gasped. They had never seen Hinata like this before, and didn't know about her skills. "That's incredible..." Motoko murmured.

Hinata dropped the Byakugan and her eyes returned to normal. She looked at Naruto and smiled.

"So... what do you think? Impressed?"

He could only nod, even if he had seen the technique used before. She sounded like she would be upset if he did anything else.
Her smile grew. A small blush tinged her cheeks.

"Thank you, Naruto."

He smiled back. He could see the old Hinata, blushing away in his mind. It was nostalgic.

The door to the kitchen slid open. Keitaro walked in, with a worried expression. He looked at Naruto, and gestured to the door. "Naruto, you have a visitor."
Naru walked into the room, followed swiftly by a face he would never forget.

Sasuke Uchiha. His old rival from Konoha. And one of his best friends.

"Hello loser. It's time to take you home."

Interesting...
And yeah. Review! ^^