Naruto gave his farewell to Hinata; her father wouldn't be too pleased by the fact that she spent the whole night away from home. Yet still he knew that he would be too afraid to face Hiashi. He wondered about the reason behind his fear, the only thing Naruto could conclude was that he didn't consider himself worthy of Hinata.
Naruto hung his head in shame as he walked back home, "What am I supposed to say to him when he asks me why I'm worth it? I'm the Jinchuuriki, I have to have something big to make up for that."
Naruto passed the usual places; every route home, he knew like the back of his hand. This had become a daily routine, yet something was out of place.
"You should go after your original goals," said a voice from the above.
Naruto stopped and looked up at the speaker, only to get blinded by the sun. The boy was sitting on a fence, searching the sky for clouds. "Which was?"
"You don't remember?" asked Kiyoshi, "Did I make you smarter or dumber?"
Naruto sat down against the fence, under Kiyoshi. He needed to apologize for what he had said earlier, but didn't know how. "Do you mean my dedication to become Hokage?"
"Hai. That's a truly noble cause to dedicate yourself to, as long as there's more to it than proving yourself to someone."
Naruto smiled, "I gave that up a while ago. I want to become Hokage to protect this village."
Kiyoshi didn't look down at the boy sitting under him, "Seems to me like you still have something to prove to someone..."
"What makes you say that?"
Kiyoshi's smile faded, "You stole my weights. There's no doubt that you want to use them."
"I want to become stronger to protect everyone!" exclaimed Naruto
"These weights are fool's strength," replied the blond boy. "Who do you want to impress?"
Naruto looked down at the ground, "Nobody."
Suddenly it hit Kiyoshi, like a sledgehammer; Naruto was trying to gain strength in order to get the respect of Hinata's father. "You idiot... her dad will disapprove of you even more than he would now."
Naruto sharply looked up at Kiyoshi, "How did you know?"
"Never mind that," replied Kiyoshi, "Naruto, there are three kinds of power; influential, mental, and physical."
"So?"
Kiyoshi dropped a rock down at Naruto, "So you're seeking the wrong kind of power!"
Naruto thought about it for a moment, "What you're saying, is that I need influential power?"
"And I thought your brain needed a trip to the mechanic," joked Kiyoshi, "Yes, you have plenty of the other two for now. In order to get influential power, you need to come up with some sort of plan to get it."
"Such as?"
"Work on becoming the Hokage."
Naruto sighed, "I've been doing that for my entire life."
Kiyoshi dropped another rock at Naruto, "Has that gotten you anywhere?"
"No..."
"Do you know why?"
"No..." Kiyoshi dropped a third rock at Naruto. "Stop that!"
"It's because you're stubborn, and you don't want to learn anything that you would need for the job,■ replied Kiyoshi
"That's not true..."
"Shut up!" screamed Kiyoshi, this time flinging the rocks down at Naruto, "Stop being stubborn!"
Naruto covered his head, "Where in the hell do you get these rocks?" screamed the whiskered kid in pain.
Kiyoshi stopped plowing Naruto with gravel and looked back up to the sky. "Naruto... ever since I left, have you visited the library even once?"
Naruto looked down, in shame again. It was true; he wasn't dedicating himself to becoming Hokage hard enough. He had been busy training his mind to cooperate with his strength, but totally forgot what he wanted to be. He wanted to be more than just a ninja, he wanted to be the Hokage; the father of every man, woman and child of Konoha. He couldn't do that with just combat skills; he needed to learn how to stay calm, how to be persistent through any boring job, how to be responsible, wise and mature.
Kiyoshi jumped down and started walking home, "Naruto, I'm sorry about what I said earlier..."
Naruto looked up in shock; Kiyoshi was sorry for saying something, when it was Naruto who said something harsh and unsanitary. "What..."
"What I said earlier isn't true," Kiyoshi continued, walking away. "I said that I don't care what you do to yourself... that's not true at all."
Naruto stood back up and watched his friend walk away, speechless. He felt like a jerk; he couldn't get himself to apologize for what he said to Kiyoshi, and still Kiyoshi was watching out for his skin. Nothing could stop his feeling of betrayal, feeling as if he hurt a family member. "Kiyoshi..."
Kiyoshi was already far away when Naruto could grasp reality again, waving his hand back at the whiskered boy. "Oh, and Naruto!" yelled Kiyoshi, "I forgive you!"
Something snapped inside Naruto, he never had the feeling before; he had friends, they helped him through some hard times, but this was only the second time he felt like he had a family that watched over him, the first was Hinata. Naruto sighed, "what a day..."
Hinata snuck into her room, to find that Neji was already waiting for her inside. "Neji-kun..." Her cousin was calmly sitting on a chair, eyes closed, waiting for an explanation. "Does father know?"
"He knows that you snuck out to go to the party yesterday," replied the boy.
"That's not what I meant."
"Hiashi doesn't know who your guy is, but he knows you're going out with someone."
Hinata sat down and rested her head on her hands, "Neji-sama, what am I going to do?"
Neji didn't lift his head or his eyes to look up at Hinata, "First of all, tell me who he is."
"You know I can't do that."
"Why not? I'm here to help you out, anything you tel..."
Hinata cut him off in mid-speech, "Naruto's my boyfriend."
Neji stopped speaking. His mouth fell wide open in shock, "Wow Hinata... I thought you were just going through a phase, but this is serious."
"Shut up..." replied Hinata, surprising her cousin once again. "Naruto is not the problem, my father is."
Neji sighed, "What happened between the two of you back on that mission?"
Hinata just realized that Neji hadn't met the new and improved Naruto. "You need to talk to him sometime, you'll be surprised."
"No thanks, I don't think I can handle any more surprises."
Hinata sat down; she needed to get a family member on her side if she was going to make the relationship happen. "He's changed, Neji. Naruto has become a gentleman, he's matured."
Neji smirked, "Very likely..."
Hinata threw a pair of shoes at Neji, "You don't believe me? Come see for yourself!"
Neji agreed, "I'll come, I need some fresh air anyways. It's probably going to be a comical experience to meet him again."
The cousin shut up when he noticed Hinata's deadly stare fixed upon him. "Watch your mouth Neji... until you see him, you have no right to comment any further."
The boy couldn't say a word; the confidence and threat of Hinata's scary eyes overwhelmed his speech. "Is this Hinata?" thought Neji.
The two pale-eyed teens searched the streets of Konoha for Hinata's boyfriend, failing to find a single clue as to where he had gone. They searched more than half of Konoha until they came by Kiyoshi's house.
Kiyoshi was lying on the couch and drinking jasmine tea, when a soft knock came on his door. "Come in!"
The knob turned, and in came Hinata, followed by her cousin. "Hey Kiyoshi-kun..."
Kiyoshi sat up and gave a suspicious glance at Neji, "Hey Hinata... What brings you to my place?"
Neji stepped up, "Who are you?"
Kiyoshi however, remembered the boy in front of him. He took out a card and tossed it at Neji, "Here's my citizenship, jackass. This time I'm prepared for your bullshit!"
Neji was confused; he was experiencing a lot of hate that day. "Have we met before?" asked Neji, trying to remember Kiyoshi's face.
"You met me in the summer! I'm the guy you demanded proof of citizenship from!"
Neji remembered, "Oh it's you! I heard you were dead. Should I make it so?"
Hinata stepped in between the two hooligans before they started killing each other. "Enough you two."
Neji turned away, Kiyoshi sat down on his bed again. "What did you want to ask me?"
"Have you seen Naruto?"
Kiyoshi became worried; Hinata could always find Naruto wherever he would be. "Hang on... you can't find him? You? Hinata?" Asked Kiyoshi. The girl shook her head. "This could be bad... if you can't find him, something must have happened."
"Did you talk to him?"
"Yeah, just a few hours ago. I reminded him of his goal to become Hokage."
Hinata thought about it, but couldn't think of anything she could associate this clue with. "Anything else?"
Kiyoshi reminisced the conversation, "Oh my god... I know where he is, follow me."
The three teens ran out of the house. Hinata and Neji followed Kiyoshi in the direction of the Hokage building. "Where are we going?" asked Hinata.
"Don't worry, you'll be proud," smiled Kiyoshi
They ran into the building, followed its curved hallways until they reached a door, unguarded. "Where are we?" asked Hinata.
Kiyoshi put his index finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet. "Can't you remember? We were here in the summer," whispered Kiyoshi.
Hinata's eyes widened; she remembered this place, it was the library they used for research on the summer's mission. "He's in there?"
Kiyoshi didn't reply, but instead he opened the door. Neji's eyes widened with shock, as he observed the picture before him in disbelief. "What the hell..." asked the boy, unable to grasp the concept of a studying Naruto.