Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
AN: Been a while but I promise not to take this long again. Because of lord of the land of fire update speed makes me feel like a super slacker I'm going to drastically reduce the time it takes for an update. It's also because I try to rotate between 3 stories (and planning two, I just can't keep them out of my damn head. I actually got like 30 plots but only 2 worked out enough that could actually be a story) but I'm going to do something different from now on. It's going to be two more chapters before the time skip and I think it will be cool to have some mini flash back chapters before skip (to Show key points like Naruto becoming a ninja, Chunin, Jounin, mother's death, stuff like that. Smaller chapters but a decent size.). The moment I submit this I'm going to start on the next chapter or watch anime, I've got little willpower.
Narutomaniac: Sasuke is going to be strong in this story but not some ultra Uchiha, hell Shino will be the stronger teammate of the two regardless of whatever power up Sasuke gets.
hope master: I'm hopeless when it comes to spelling because I hate English. I usually end of spelling words how I would pronounce them.
esparza3368: yeah most stories you either get a saint Naruto or a random murderer. My Naruto goes by the ends justify the means.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Chapter 13: Choice of Pain
Naruto almost made it to his scroll room but Ino grabbed his arm before he could, she wanted answers. "What do you mean you're not going to train us anymore? The finals are in one month and you're supposed to train us for it." The blonde haired girl said.
"What exactly should I train you in? You want me to teach you Ninjutsu? How would more Jutsu help you, especially when you haven't perfected the ones you have? You want a different style of Taijutsu? You know the one that's best suited for you. We don't have enough time for any useful Genjutsu, Fuuinjutsu, or anything else. If you can't train yourselves at this point you have no right to want to become a Chunin. Besides it seems like two of you still have the wrong idea about what ninja do." The Jounin said.
Naruto was probably right, what would more Jutsu do right now. Ino knew she still had things she already knew that could use some work. Her father was even asking when she would take time to lean some of the Yamanaka Jutsu.
"What do you mean we have the wrong idea about ninja?" Ino asked.
"In the forest Ino, why did you suggest finding a new target when you had one already? Sakura, you could have easily burned that boy's entire body but you toned down the Jutsu so it only burned his arm. You were afraid to kill him so you went easy on him giving him a chance to counter attack or escape." He said.
The two girls were shocked a bit, how did he know what happened in the forest? Only way for him to know was if someone told them, or so they thought. If someone told him it had to be Hinata, or maybe even the girl they captured. Speaking of her…
"Naruto, what's going to happen to the girl we caught?" Sakura asked.
"Nothing much for now, we just want to know about the training methods of other villages. Though in the future who knows, you girl sure caught someone interesting." He said. While he would like to hurry and 'integrate' her bloodline into the village, Sandaime would never OK it so Naruto's 'group' would have to keep her tucked away nicely until he was in charge. While thinking of the future Naruto remember something that needed to be addressed. "Hinata, I think now would be the best time to announce it." Naruto told.
Hinata's eyes opened as wide as she could get them, she wanted to tell Ino after the exams, when they would be already married. Well, when she decided to wait she didn't know it would take over a month to complete but hey, after them exams is what she said so after is what she planned. Leave it to Naruto to create such an awkward moment. Well here goes nothing…
"Sandaime-sama and my father are forcing Naruto and me to be married within the next 3 weeks." She said.
"WHAT!?" Sakura and Ino screamed at the same time. "Why does he have to marry you? Not that I want to get married but why would they tell you to marry him and not his girlfriend?" Ino said.
"It was my father's idea. Besides, I'm his girlfriend as well." Hinata said defensively. Naruto wanted to leave the room at that moment. Did she really have to say that last part? Naruto wasn't the best when it came to the social aspects of life but he knew saying that would cause trouble.
Ino on the other had gone from surprised, to confused, to sad, and then finally to anger. She turned back to Naruto and saw him looking elsewhere as if he didn't want to look at her. She then raised her hand and brought it back as far as she could so she could slap him hard. Before her hand could reach his face Hinata and ran and grabbed it. Ino looked Hinata in the eyes with no small amount of anger. "Let go of me you bitch! You were supposed to be my teammate but you go around messing with my boyfriend." Ino said.
"I know what we did isn't right but what you were doing isn't right either." Hinata said after releasing her arm.
"What I'm doing? What the hell am I doing that's wrong?" A complete confused Ino asked.
"The reason you asked Naruto to go out with you. You only asked him out because you knew he was going to be Hokage, before that you only cared about the Uchiha." Hinata said while still holding the girls wrist.
"Is that what you think? You think I'm the type of person who goes out with someone because who he is? You've been doing who know what with someone else's boyfriend and even managed to get your fucked up family force you two to marry. On top of all that you try make me look bad? If this how my 'teammate' and 'sensei' act then I don't want to be on this team." At this point you could see tears running down her face. Ino then left his house slamming the door after saying that. Sakura ran out the door after her, she was angry with Naruto and Hinata as well but not nearly as much as Ino.
"Don't worry about too much Hinata. While that was not the best way to do it and it turned out worse than I hoped it would, it had to be done. Though I have to tell you were wrong about Ino, she told me that Sakura thought that was the reason she asked me out. It had nothing to do with my announcement of being the next Hokage, but the fact that she felt that if she waited she would lose the chance to you. Though she told me that about two weeks after me and you started our… affair." Naruto said.
Hinata felt bad for what she said now. She has assumed something and it had been wrong, now one of her teammates wants nothing to do with her or Naruto. While Hinata had never truly been friends with Sakura and Ino, they were at least friendly to each other and now she couldn't count on that anymore. She had not thought too much about how Ino would react to news, she was still thinking about it affected her own self. Ino said she didn't want to be part of the team anymore but Hinata wonder was she even allowed to quit the team.
Naruto could see Hinata standing there looking sad so he took her hand and led her to the sofa where they both sat down. "I said don't worry about it, I'll take care of everything." He said softly. She nodded to him and leaned on his shoulder.
The next day Naruto went to see Sandaime to let him know of a 'mission' he planned to give his students. Before he could say anything to the old man he was informed a murder that took place the night before. Gekko Hayate, the proctor from the exams wall killed. Naruto didn't personally know the man but it was never good to hear about an ally dying. What worried him most was that someone would kill a shinobi in their own village. You don't do things like that unless you have no choice or just plain stupid.
The Hokage told him that he suspects that Orochimaru is up to something. Naruto told him he will be on the lookout for anything suspicious and would let him know if he found anything. He then informed Sandaime of what he had planned for his students. The old man didn't like but let Naruto go ahead with his plans anyways.
Ino didn't feel like getting out of the bed today because of how shitty yesterday was for her. It started off pretty good with her match is the preliminaries of the exam but after than it was nothing but downhill. She always suspected something might happen between Naruto and Hinata considering they live together, but them being married was not even something she considered possible. Then again Hinata did say it was her family that was forcing them to do so. She couldn't even imagine her own father forcing her to marry someone, forcing someone to stay away from her would be more likely. He didn't seem to mind the idea of her dating Naruto though so he wasn't as overprotective her she suspected he would be. Maybe it was because she was too young to be in a serious relationship or because Naruto is who he is.
She said she didn't want to be on their team anymore but she knew it was Naruto who had the final decision on things like that. She also knew that her best chance to become truly strong was to stay on his team. Sure she could probably become a Jounin on someone else's team but she knew that by Naruto's thought just being a Jounin wasn't enough. His idea of strong started at people like Hatake Kakashi, the Sannin, and the Kages. Did she really want to give up her best chance of becoming someone who could be included on a list like that because of what happened yesterday? She could already imagine what people would say in the future. "You gave your chance to be taught by the Hokage because he married another woman? That's just plain stupid."
'Besides it's not like I'm in love with sensei, but I did like him. I never could tell if he actually liked me or not, probably not though, he probably doesn't even like Hinata." She then wondered why he would even allow the Hyuuga to do something like that. He didn't seem to care about what they did before, so why would he let them do what they want now. Then she remembered that Sandaime was part of it.
"AHHH WHATEVER" she yelled. Right then there was a knock on her bedroom door. "Come in." When the door opened it was Sakura. "Ino, sensei said we have to be at his house in 1 hour for a meeting and to be in full gear." The pink haired girl said.
"What? No way am I going over there right now." Ino said.
Sakura then took out one of Naruto's Hiraishin kunai and said. "Sensei said it's not an option and if you don't come own your own that come and get you himself. Really Ino he seemed pretty serious about whatever he wants us to do."
"Ok, whatever, I'll go! I really didn't want to see those two today though." Ino said before getting up and getting ready.
Once they were all gathered at his house Naruto wasted no time inspected their gear. Once he was sure they had all of their weapons, scrolls, and amour he walked outside of his house and told them to follow him.
"Where are we going? Are you going to train us now?" Sakura asked, hopeful that he would train them.
"Training you? No that's not what I'm about to do. I'm going to teach you something you don't know, something that all shinobi should know. You'll find out what it is soon, so just follow me." Naruto said.
When they reached their destination, a wooden house, outside of Konoha, in the middle of the forest, they were more confused than ever as to what they would be doing. When they went inside they noticed there were people already inside the house. Four people to be exact, all women, and from the look of their clothes they were Medic Nins.
"Girls, these ladies are some of the best Medic Nins in Konoha, they can have you from critical condition to battle ready in less than 6 hours. They will be assisting you by doing what they do best. This house will serve as your base and safe zone and the area of operation will be 4 square mile with this place being the center." Naruto said.
"Wait, what are you talking about? Why do we need Medic Nins here? What do we need a base for what, and what operation?" Ino asked what all 3 of the girls were thinking.
"Ah, the barrier is up. Oh, I didn't explain what exactly I brought you here for? I guess it's I'll tell you now. Even though I didn't want to I still ended up treating you 3 like girls. No matter how many Jutsu you know, no matter how many weapons you have, no matter have much chakra you have it won't matter if treat the life of a shinobi like a game. So for the next two weeks you will be lean how scary, how dangerous, how painful, and how hard it is to be a shinobi. From now until the end of this exercise I am no longer your sensei, I'm not your fiancé, boyfriend, or friend. I'm your enemy and I will think of you girls like an enemy so you better come at me with the right mindset. The medics will tell you the rest of the rules, see you later." Naruto said then disappeared.
"Hello, my Name is Aoi. The rules for the first round are simple, Naruto-sama has a pendant around his neck and you 3 must take it from him. If he is left alone for 3 hours he will come and attack you so you won't try and waist time. If one of you is hurt, we will be there to heal you on the spot unless it's required for us to bring you back here. At least one member of our team will be following each one of you the entire time you're out there, so don't worry about us not making it in time. I will be with Hinata-san, Shiroi will be with Ino-san, and Akai will be with Sakura-san. Kiiro will be with Naruto-sama." It was easy for the girls to notice that the medics were using fake names, blue, white, red, and yellow. Their code names were based on the person they were following.
"Oh, two more things I need to tell you. For the first 4 days Hinata-san will be the team leader. Next is Sakura-san, then Ino-san. Also the person who actually takes the pendant from Naruto-sama will receive a prize, a promotion to Special Jounin after the exams are over." Aoi told them.
Aoi had to suppress a smirk at how well Naruto's plan was working. Dangle a nice prize over their heads and they won't protest. She also knew Naruto had no plans to let them get the pendant as well, but if they did get it they deserved the promotion.
"Well girls I suggest you get started." Aoi said. The three nodded and left the house with the medics right behind them.
It had been about an hour since he left the girls and Naruto knew they would find him soon. He really hoped they understood that they would have to give it their all. Any less than coming at him with the intent to kill would be unacceptable. 'They're almost here. I guess the first lesson is pain, mental and physical so I will be to show them that I was serious.'
About a minute later Ino jumped towards him with her arm extended in an attempt to punch him. Seeing this Naruto was disappointed. She has a sword and other weapons yet she's trying to hit him with her fist. Naruto ducted under the punch and then moved forward a bit, once he was in the perfect position he kneed Ino in the stomach, hard, enough so that a bit of blood came from her mouth and she passed out.
Sakura who was in a tree paused in a middle of making hand seals for a Jutsu. She was in shock from seeing Naruto hit Ino that hard. In training he never was too rough on them. Naruto noticed Sakura's pause was again disappointed. When a teammate is hit you don't stop in shock you try harder to save them. He threw a kunai at her, she easily dodged but he never planned on hitting her with it. While she was distracted with his Kunai he jumped on the tree branch she was on swept her legs from under her. She hit the ground before she even realized what was happening. What she did realize was that she was screaming because her wrist hurt like hell. It was probably broken or at least fractured.
Sakura's scream had woken Ino, but she wished it hadn't because she was in a world of pain. She knew Sakura was probably worse off than she was if the cry and clutching of her wrist was anything to go by. She could see Hinata attacking Naruto with Juken but he seemed to be dodging with minimal effort.
Naruto had been dodging Hinata's attack for the past minute and saw everything he needed to know. Though he already knew what Hinata would mess up on. "Hinata, stop." He said, and stop she did. That was he mistake, because as soon as she stopped he warped behind her and put a kunai to her neck.
"Why did you stop attacking Hinata?" He asked.
"W-What do you mean, you told me to stop." She replied.
"I thought I told you that until the end of this I'm your enemy! You don't stop attacking an enemy because they told you so. Also, you are responsible for this horrible excuse of an assault, next time you 3 better come prepared for a real fight because if you come at me half assed again you'll just get hurt." He said before kissing Hinata on the cheek and leaving the area and a blushing Hinata. Hinata already he pain, both types so he was going see how she handled her team rejecting her.
As soon as he left the medics came out and went over to Sakura and Ino to check and heal their injuries. Hinata went over to them to see if they were alright, that turned out to be a bad idea. "Oh, were completely fine, I only passed out from a knee to the stomach and Sakura only suffered a mere broken wrist. You on the other hand should hurry and see your medic because I can only imagine the pain your cheek must be in. Ino said with so much sarcasm that even the trees recognized it.
An hour later the girls were back to 100 and looking for Naruto again. This time it ended with Sakura having a black eye, Ino with a kunai stuck in her right shoulder, and a trapped in mud but unharmed Hinata.
The entire four days of Hinata's leadership went that way. Sakura's list of injuries included 6 kunai wounds, 2 broken ribs, 3 broken fingers, countless bruises, and a concussion. Ino's injuries were 15 Kunai wounds, 1 broken arm, 2 missing teeth (which she almost had a heart attack about until the medics told her they could grow them back easily), as many bruises as Sakura, and a burn on her right leg. Hinata was merely dirty, though less than the other two and they were extremely angry that they gotten the shit beat out of them yet she hasn't been hurt.
At the end of Hinata's turn at leader they were given a 1 day break with which they spent the first 15 hours of sleep since they only had about 7 hours worth of sleep since the start.
Hinata was the last one to wake up and when she did all she could think about was how the next 4 days would be now that she wasn't the leader. She would describe her time as the leader as pure hell. After the first 3 assaults Sakura and Ino realized Naruto wasn't going hurt Hinata at all just tying her up or something so she would be out of the fight. They didn't want anything to do with her then, the whole marriage thing before wasn't helping the situation either. They constantly got mad at her because Naruto would not hurt her.
Sometimes they wouldn't listen to her plans and went off on their own, and that's when they really got hurt. After the first day they stopped holding back completely was trying their best to actually hit Naruto with anything they could. So far they had yet to actually land a hit on him and he wasn't even using many Jutsu.
Hinata got out of her sleeping bag she was sleeping in since the house was only that, a house, no furniture, no plumbing or anything like it was just built before they got there. What she didn't know was that it WAS built the day before the got there by Tenzo. She then sat up against the wall and activated her Byakugan to see where the others were. 'They're talking to the medics. I wonder why the medics are using fake names anyways. They told us that this was training for them, I wonder if they are ANBU.' She though.
She noticed she was hungry so she took a ration bar from her pouch and ate the bland tasting thing. Ration bars, soldier pill, and water were the only things they would have until they went home. Too many things were happening too quickly for Hinata, being branded, banished, a bride, beaten, and then a battle? While she wasn't being physically beaten she was mentally. Before graduating from the academy she had no friends, after becoming a ninja she thought she gained two. One turned into a rival and now she thought she could safely say she back to zero friends.
She didn't think of Naruto as a friend considering there 'relationship'. Everything she knew about marriage was based off the example that was her parents. Both of them are Hyuuga, and her mother was picked by Hiashi to be his wife. She loved her mother but ever since she moved in with Naruto even that has begin to fade. Would she have to be the type of person who sends her own daughter off with a stranger for the village, just because Naruto said so? Her mother was completely obedient towards Hiashi, but so are all Hyuuga. Would she have to be obedient to Naruto? No, she knew she didn't have too. From all the things she learned about him the thing that stood out most was that his family was the number 1 priority, everything else second. He wouldn't expect her to do anything he says. 'Even if I don't have to it will probably be that way anyway.'
In another room Ino and Sakura who had gotten up about an hour before Hinata were talking to the medics about random things. They were pretty much just trying to get to know one another, although the medics were not giving away information about themselves.
An hour later Hinata came into the room but still choose not to talk unless she was asked a question. For hours they sat there talking and getting supplies ready until it was almost time to start again. When they left the building the medics wished them luck and the girl were preparing for the more of what happened before, too bad for them Naruto decide to change the program, it was time for fear.
When the girl caught up to where Naruto was he started talking rather than fighting like he did before. "What I'm about to do may cause you to fear me, you may even hate me. That's fine because I really don't care about how you feel about me. My job is to turn you three girls into ninja who can take care of things outside of Konoha while I take care of the things inside, not to be your friend."
The next thing the felt was wind, then heat. Fist his eyes changed, then the marks on his face thickened, his nails changed into claws and his hair went wild. Even though those changes were a lot they were nothing compared to the chakra. The red chakra that was swirling around him was more than the girls ever thought possible. It was hot, heavy, and had evil feel to it.
"Last time you chased me around, but this time it's me who's going to be doing the chasing. Even if you give up I won't stop fighting. No amount of begging or crying will get you out of this because no enemy will stop because of that." Naruto told them.
With having said everything he needed to Naruto took a swipe at the air causing a large amount of wind and chakra hit them and knocked them all back. Hinata didn't know whether to be happy or sad that Naruto hit her but at this moment she realized Naruto wasn't attacking her so they would be mad at her.
Once the girls got up off the ground they did the only thing a sane person would do in such a situation, run like hell. 'Just as planned.' Naruto thought before chasing after them. Even though he could have easily caught up to them he stayed right on their heels. When they begin to slow down he would roar or hit them with a blast of chakra. Soldier pills allowed for ninja to stay active for 3 days and he wasn't going to leave them alone until they absolutely couldn't run any further. Well he would back off every once in a while so they could get a bit of rest, and with the seals on his body maintaining this level of Kyuubi's chakra would have him going for as long as he needed.
It took a total of 2 days for them to pass out, he was surprised that it took that long, but the girls had enough chakra stored up that they could use it to make running and dodging far easier than it would be without it. During those two days Naruto stuck with chasing them and rarely attacking them so they didn't get hurt much. The Kyuubi's chakra naturally caused fear and the bloodlust he was adding to it killed off all the bravery the girl did have, even the medics had to force themselves not to run away.
He would have to tell Ino and Sakura about the Kyuubi, as Hinata already knew, but he could do that after the exam. He was out of site of the girls be he knew they were awake so he decided to step it up a bit. Gathering more of Kyuubi's chakra than he did before, it started to wrap around him and bubble until it formed into the shape of a fox around him with 1 tail behind him. Once he was done he took off in the direction his students were in.
The girls felt the chakra way before Naruto ever made it to them and being as smart as they were, they ran away before he got to them. It didn't help much as Naruto quickly caught up to and sped past them. Before they could react he let out roar that would have, if Naruto intended it to hit them, knocked them off their feet. He wasn't too sure about hitting the girl while in this state because he didn't know if they could handle it or not. He was only doing this part of the exercise so the girls knew the power of a Jinchuuriki. He planned to have them help him stop that group
Jiraiya told him about. Having them come across someone with overwhelming power while never having experiencing it before hand could be disastrous.
"That's enough of this." Naruto said before he stopped using Kyuubi's chakra. 'It seems no matter how strong I am or how good I can control it that chakra makes me want to hurt something.' He thought. "You girls can do whatever you want until the 3rd exercise starts." Of course they chose to rest.
When the 3rd exercise started the girl loved it. During the first two they couldn't get one hit on Naruto so destroying all of the attacking clones was a good stress reliever for them. Naruto was sending out squads of 12 clones to attack the girls and they would destroy them as fast as they could. They performed better with his than the other two, possible because they had more rest, probably because the clones were all but jumping in from of their attacks. At the end of the exercise Ino and Sakura bolted for home, they both planned a long shower/bath and sleep for who knows how long.
When Naruto and Hinata got home they found two people in their house waiting for them. One was a white haired man who was staring at the chest of the purple haired woman, Jiraiya and Anko. The woman didn't care about Jiraiya's staring at her, if she did she wouldn't be wearing a fishnet shirt.
"What brings you two here, and Jiraiya stop that." Naruto said. Even if Anko didn't care he did. Not because he didn't like perverts, it was more because Jiraiya would never pay attention to Naruto while looking at her.
"I'm going to be sticking around for a while because of certain things." Jiraiya said. He was referring to Akatsuki and Orochimaru.
"So you're going to stick around until they are all dealt with, that will be a big help." The blond joining said.
"Well, I will be homeless for about month. I have been for a week, so I've been using your sofa as a bed." She could see the questioning looks as on Naruto and Hinata's face as to why she was homeless so she decided to answer. "My apartment door was rigged with an explosion note, almost didn't make it." She told.
"Know who did it? That is clearly treason and I can have ANBU take them in ASAP." Naruto said. Sadly Anko shook her head no as she had no idea who did it. It was most likely family or friends of one of the guys she killed, but that was just circumstantial evidence at best. The reason it would take her so long to find another place was because no one would want to rent a place to someone when it was possible it could be bombed.
"Well OK, you can stay here if you want. In fact you can move in here permanently if you want. You can move into the room into the room Hinata is using now. Hinata you will be moving into my room so you can move your stuff later." Naruto said.
Anko was shocked, Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, and Hinata blushed. "Naruto, don't you think it's a little early to be asking the girl to share a room with you?" Jiraiya asked because he was also a little confused. Naruto did tell him about the girl moving in with him but that was months ago. Were they going out now?
"It's only a week before we're married so it will be fine." Naruto said. He had to hold back from laughing when he seen Jiraiya's face. The man's jaw was almost on the floor and his eyes were almost out of their sockets. "If you're wondering it's was your sensei's order." The moment after Naruto said that Jiraiya was gone in a puff of smoke.
