A/N: Hello! I'm really, really sorry for the late update. I had written and revised this chapter multiple times, and though I already squeezed my brains out, I still couldn't find the right feel to it. I just hope that I made the right decision of choosing this version, and that you'll like it just like you did the previous chapters. Again, thank you so much for adding this story to your favorites, follows, and of course, for posting those wonderful reviews! They really cracked me up!

Many thanks!

4. Super cool!

"Umm, Hinata.." Naruto peeked open his left eye to look at the person sitting next to him.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" She answered, eyes still closed in meditation.

"I do understand that we need to do this pre-training training stuff with Neji,"

"A-Alright?"

"And I also know it's important, that's why we're here in the middle of the forest in wee hours, but one thing I don't understand is..." He stalled.

Hinata opened her eyes, feeling the concern in his voice. She glanced at Naruto, whose face appeared to be in a huge struggle trying to look calm. "Hmm?" She hummed.

"WHY ON EARTH DO THESE PEOPLE HAVE TO BE HERE?!" Naruto's finger pointed to a group of four people and one large dog sitting behind them around a campfire.

"Who? Us? Don't mind us. We just happen to pass by." Kiba waved his hand lazily. He rolled a barbecue stick he was holding with his right hand to make sure he toasted all the sides of his marshmallows.

"It's two in the morning, dog breath!" Naruto scowled.

"What's wrong with that?" Kiba answered nonchalantly as he inspected two toasted marshmallows, one of which he shared with Akamaru. The huge dog barked and wagged its tail.

"That's right, Naruto. It's not like we're here because we want to see you train." Tenten said, opening a bag of potato chips as she adjusted inside her sleeping bag.

"Damn right, you're not!" Naruto shouted sarcastically.

Sakura waved a hand across her face as she cried 'Hot! Hot! Hot!' after sipping a smoking cup of hot chocolate. "Would you stop shouting? You'll alert the guards. This is supposed to be secret training, right?"

"I know that, Sakura-chan! That's why I don't understand what you guys are doing here!"

"They will help you, Naruto."

Naruto turned his head to Neji, who himself appeared to be doubting his own words, his back rested on a nearby tree. "Kiba and Shino are here, because they've been in a team with Hinata-sama the longest. They can surely tell if your moves are not like Hinata-sama at all."

"Oh, Shino's here?" Naruto wandered his eyes and saw the insect user, who's been sitting beside Kiba the entire time.

"Is my jacket too dark?" Shino murmured.

"Sakura here brought you some chakra pills that can help stabilize your chakra so that you can properly do the Gentle Fist. That's after you learn the Byakugan, of course."

"Uh, thanks, Sakura-chan!" Naruto grinned. "How about Tenten?"

Neji's eyes gazed towards the girl in question. "She just happened to pass by."

"With a sleeping bag?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"Why? What's so weird about that?" Tenten smiled widely at Neji.

"Whatever!" Naruto sat back beside Hinata, who didn't seem to be bothered by the situation even a bit.

"Hinata-sama, let's start once you're done." Neji said.

"We can start now, Neji-niisan."

"Alright. You, Naruto," Neji called. "Observe carefully Hinata-sama's moves as we fight. You will find them useful on our training later this morning. Hiashi-sama will be watching, and his Byakugan surely won't miss anything odd. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Alright, popcorn's ready!" Kiba shouted.

"Shut up!"

Naruto watched as both Neji and Hinata assumed their fighting stance and started to attack and block each others' Gentle Fist. Hinata, being in another person's body, couldn't properly execute their clan's special technique, especially the Eight Trigrams. She did, however, landed a few strikes with her fingers, that, if she had been in her full potential, would make Neji lose his ability to flow chakra to both his arms.

"I see you had memorized the location of the tenketsu points. You perfectly hit the spots even without the Byakugan. Good job, Hinata-sama." Neji said.

"I-It was all thanks to you, Neji-niisan. You taught me well." Hinata lowered her head, embarrassed of being complimented by her genius cousin.

Neji's lips slightly curved upward. "Alright, let's start again. Naruto, watch closely. It will be your turn next."

"I know. Geez! Why do you have to be so bossy?" Naruto rested his chin on one of his hands as he silently observed the two Hyuugas.

'So she usually blocks with two arms.' He mused, as he watched how Hinata lifted her arms to block Neji's attacks. He watched her very intently, that he didn't notice that he was observing even the smallest details of her actions- how her lips pressed when she looked uncertain, how her brows would furrow when she had become too serious in the fight, and how her eyes went millimeters wider and her mouth hang open in a panic when she hit Neji with a pseudo-Gentle Fist that wasn't totally gentle, and made him fly about 500 meters from where he was standing.

"Neji-niisan!" Hinata immediately ran after her cousin.

'That's probably Kurama,' Naruto shook his head and made a lopsided smile. 'Graceful and strong.' He made sure to remember the words. Who would've thought that watching Hinata's moves would be this fun? He liked that strong, determined Hinata that he was seeing. If only she wasn't stuck inside that stupid body. Oh wait, that was his body.

"Isn't it amazing how people change over time?

"Sakura-chan." Naruto turned his head and watched as the pink-haired kunoichi found a seat beside him.

"I can still remember how Neji hated Hinata so much that he almost killed her in the chunin exam. Now, he's the first one to help her become their clan head. Don't you find it amazing?" A small smile formed in her lips.

"Well… Of course, I do." Naruto's eyes followed as Neji and Hinata walked back to the small training area they found at the forest. One of Neji's arms was around Hinata's shoulder for support, while the other guarded his torso.

"He's alright! He's alright!" They heard Hinata shouted to no one in particular, her voice shaking.

"Hey Naruto, doesn't it weird you out that you need to watch Hinata, but you're seeing your face instead?" Sakura giggled.

Naruto thought for a moment. "It did, at first. It's like watching a shadow clone with a totally different personality. Like an Oiroke no Jutsu that went terribly wrong! But the more I watch her, I mean that body, the more I start to see Hinata. Those gestures, the way it talks- I just know it's her. I don't need to imagine Hinata. I can see her clearly despite that ugly man-face." He grinned.

Sakura stared at him awestricken. To be honest, she was expecting some dumb answer from him, or at least to hear him rant. She couldn't believe those words came from Naruto's lips. They just appeared to be too melodramatic to be Naruto.

"Or maybe that it is time that changes people?" Sakura said in almost a whisper.

"What's that?"

All the awe she felt disappeared in an instant when Naruto looked back at her with his index finger jammed inside his nose.

"That's disgusting. How can you do that with Hinata's face?!" Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Naruto..." She leaned closer to him and whispered.

"Hm?" Their close proximity didn't bother Naruto like it used to.

"Hinata used to watch you all time, even when we we're kids. How does it feel now that you're the one watching her?" Sakura gave him a playful smile as she teased.

"W-What's that supposed to mean? Of course I have to watch her! I have to learn the Gentle Fist, so I can help her with her training!" Naruto reasoned, a blush slowly creeping across his face.

"You decided to help her even if you have to go through all these. I wonder why, hmm?" The smirk never left her face.

"I'm…" Naruto cleared his throat. "I'm just returning the favor!"

"That's it?" Sakura gave her a questioning look.

'You're important to me.' He remembered saying to Hinata that afternoon.

"Neji-niisan, you're bleeding!" Naruto heard Hinata's voice from afar.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Sakura-chan." Naruto averted his eyes. "And aren't you supposed to help them? You're a medic-nin!"

"I guess you need more time, huh?" Sakura hung her head defeated, oblivious of the emergency that was Neji starting to bleed to death. "She really likes you, you know?" She said quietly, remembering the number of times she had to patch Hinata up because she got injured trying to save Naruto. She looked at him from the corner of her eyes when Naruto didn't respond. "I wonder how long Hinata's going to wait."

"What's that, Sakura-chan?"

"Neji-niisan, open your eyes!" He heard Hinata scream once more.

"Are you going deaf? Sheesh! Anyway, here are your chakra pills. Take one now before you train with Neji, and make sure to take another once you get back at the compound. I have to go." Sakura dusted her skirt off as she slowly stretched her legs to stand, Hinata's cries still left unnoticed.

"Where are you going? Aren't you going to help them?" Naruto asked.

"Sasuke and I will see Kakashi-sensei tomorrow, and I have to wake up early. I'm considering this a date." Her smile broadened from one ear to another.

Naruto gave her a taunting look. "I guess the only one who hasn't changed here is you. You're still following that moron."

"Oh, that also changed, too." Sakura winked at him before turning her back to Naruto.

"You'll regret choosing him over me one day!" Naruto joked.

Sakura stuck her tongue out and waved Naruto goodbye. "I'll see you around, Naruto. Watch out, you might just fall in love with 'yourself'." She teased.

Naruto grinned, watching Sakura's form disappear into the darkness of the forest. His gaze returned to Hinata who was still in panic trying to get her cousin to wake up, but Naruto seemed too mesmerized to notice. 'So she bites her fingers when she panics. That's cute…' He didn't notice he's being staring for too long, until he heard Tenten, who was already kneeling beside Hinata, yelled at him.

"Quit staring and help us, idiot!"

Naruto blinked realizing that he had spaced out. He lowered his head trying to hide a lopsided smile he didn't understand the reason for. He got up from the ground and dashed towards the person who currently possessed his body. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Hinata!"

"Concentrate your chakra in your eyes, Naruto-kun." Hinata said softly.

"I'm... trying.." Naruto gritted his teeth. All the calmness brought by the previous meditation completely lost as Naruto made a violent effort to activate the Byakugan.

"That's alright. Just calm down and imagine your chakra flowing through your eyes."

"Right... Chakra flowing through my eyes." He repeated. "This is really… difficult."

"You can do it, Naruto-kun. I believe in you."

His tensed face slightly lit up as he tried to hold back a smile. "Thank you, Hinata."

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun."

Naruto let out a small gasp upon getting a strange feeling around his eyes. "I-I think it's working! I can feel strong chakra in my eyes!"

"T-That's great!"

"I really can feel it! Hang on, hang on..."

Hinata held her breath as she watched Naruto's forehead wrinkled in concentration. Veins started to appear around Naruto's eyes as he shouted "Byakugan!"

"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata blinked her eyes. She didn't doubt even the slightest that he could do it, but the fact that he was able to do it that fast amazed her. "You did it.. You activated the Byakugan! A-Amazing, Naruto-kun!"

"Wow... So, this is the Byakugan.." Naruto blinked his eyes. "You have such amazing eyes, Hinata! This is so great!" Naruto took his time marveling his newly-learned jutsu. Without moving his head, he could see a herd of wild bears eighty meters away to his right. Fifty meters to his left was a swarm of killer bees buzzing their way thru the forest. But what really caught his attention was eighty meters behind them- a twenty-four hour hot spring pool where a group of young ladies were currently swimming naked.

"Super cool!" Naruto was ecstatic.

Hinata smiled as she watched him use her eyes, but failed to notice that he sniffed back a trail of blood that dripped down from his nostril.

"Alright! Now, Hinata, I'm ready for the Gentle Fist!" Naruto tried to imitate Neji's stance, when he suddenly heard a low growling sound coming from Hinata's stomach.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata could feel her face warm with embarrassment. If the ground would decide to open and swallow someone alive, that would have been the best time. But it didn't happen. "I-I forgot about dinner."

Naruto laughed. "Why don't we eat while you teach me the Gentle Fist? I brought cinnamon rolls for snack." He offered.

"O-Okay." Hinata answered, face still red from embarrassment, but still joined Naruto as he sat down under a broad-leaved tree.

Hinata paused for a while before taking another bite of the cinnamon roll that Naruto brought. "I-Is there something in my face, Naruto-kun?" She blushed upon noticing that Naruto's white eyes had been fixed on her intently.

"Oh!" Naruto scratched his cheek with a finger. "Sorry. I'm just trying to memorize the way you eat. You know, this might be useful one day, since I'll be staying at your house for a while."

"Hmm, that's very clever Naruto-kun."

He chuckled. "Do you know that you chew like ten times before you swallow your food?"

"Really?" She said, surprised that Naruto had been watching keenly. "I-I didn't notice." She watched him show off that carefree smile, and her face turned red. "I-I hope Neji-niisan's okay." Hinata continued, trying to change the subject. But she was indeed worried about her cousin, who she accidentally incapacitated with a rasengan-like punch a few minutes ago, thanks to Naruto's body's huge chakra reserves. She could still remember how he groaned in pain as Akamaru carried him to the hospital.

"He'll be fine. Don't worry. He's Neji after all. He'll be out in no time."

"I'm sorry. Because of that, you're stuck here with just me to teach you."

"What are you talking about? You're doing great! And you have the patience of a saint, which is good, by the way. You know I'm not a fast learner." Naruto laughed.

"T-Thank you." Hinata gave him a shy smile. She chewed on the last piece of her cinnamon roll and stared at her calloused hands. "Y-You see, the Gentle Fist is just like any taijutsu. It's just that, you have to concentrate an amount of chakra to the tips of your fingers, or your palms, Naruto-kun." She explained.

"So it's like creating small rasengans?"

"A bit, but you don't release the chakra until your fingers are in contact with the enemy's body, like you're going to inject the chakra to their tenketsu points using your fingers."

"Oh. Sounds like a really difficult jutsu." He smirked.

"It is. That's why I'm really doing my best to master it. I don't want to disappoint anyone." A small bitter smile formed on her lips, which Naruto didn't fail to notice.

'That's because I believe in Hinata-sama's strength. I've seen how hard she worked just to be acknowledged by her own father.'

Naruto remembered Neji's words from yesterday, and he felt a tug deep inside his chest. He reached out his hand and picked up a small crumb that clung onto Hinata's cheek. "You won't. I'm sure of that." The smile on his face was as wide as the Valley of the End. "Are you ready to teach me the Gentle Fist, Hinata?"

She paused for a moment, surprised of what Naruto just did. "Y-Yes I am!" Hinata felt a new kind of excitement she hadn't felt before.

"I am really sorry about your shoulder, Hinata." Naruto scratched the back of his head, as the two of them walked side by side back to the main roads of Konoha, heading to the Hyuuga compound.

"It's fine, Naruto-kun. Don't worry about it, although I might not be able to use this arm for any jutsus for a while." HInata gently massaged her right shoulder that Naruto juken-ed with his fingers.

Naruto sheepishly poked the tips of his index fingers together. "I'm so sorry.."

"Ah! I didn't mean it that way. Sorry, Naruto-kun. But really, I'm not hurt anywhere." She gave him a gentle smile. "It's really impressive that you were able to learn the basics of Gentle Fist in just one night. I remember training for the same technique for an entire month. You're chakra control is amazing, Naruto-kun."

Naruto made a nervous laugh. "Well, I did learn something from my training at Mount Myoboku. But still, my movements are slow, and I still fail to hit the tenketsu points perfectly."

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Neji-niisan will be there to help you."

"Speaking of your cousin, what's taking him so long? It's almost time for my training. Shouldn't he be out from the hospital?"

They rounded the corner of the street that lead to Hinata's house and stopped at the gate of the compound, where they were met by Hinata's bodyguard.

"Ko-san!" Hinata suddenly blurted out, too happy to see him for the first time after she got back from the mission that she forgot that she appeared as Naruto to Ko.

Thinking that she was Naruto, Ko looked at her questioningly.

"Uh, I mean, Hey, Ko-san! D-Dattebayo…." Hinata said awkwardly.

"Good morning, Ko-san~~!" Naruto immediately cut off to divert the older Hyuuga's attention. "Why are you up so early in the morning?"

"I'm always up this early, Hinata-sama." Ko's voice was stern.

"Oh, right." Naruto forced a laugh. "Is something wrong?"

"I was looking everywhere for you. Tenten-san came here a few minutes ago, saying that Neji was in the hospital. Do you know what happened?" Ko also sounded worried.

"N-No. I was training with Naruto-kun." Beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead.

"Hmm I see." Ko gave Hinata a skeptic look. "Please hurry, then. Your father is also looking for you." Ko turned around and walked inside the compound.

"I guess, this is it. I'll see you later!" Naruto whispered to Hinata, and he disappeared behind the wooden door that separated the Hyuuga clan from the rest of Konoha.

Hinata only nodded. She clutched the fabric of her orange shirt, anxiety building up inside her as she thought on how the training would go without her cousin Neji to back Naruto up.

"Good morning, Otou-sama~." Naruto walked into the courtyard and greeted the Hyuuga clan leader, who only nodded back to him.

"I see your feeling better now." His cold eyes watched Naruto closely, remembering how awfully fidgety his daughter was last night. 'That dewormer must be really effective.' He nodded to himself inwardly. "Good. Do you know what happened to Neji?"

"Unfortunately, I don't, Otou-sama~. I only found out this morning." Naruto said, struggling to choose the right words to sound like Hinata. "I-I'm just hoping that he didn't catch the worms, too~~~" Naruto smiled inwardly, thinking of how Neji could painfully payback for the trouble he went through by drinking a whole bottle of dewormer last night.

'Was it that contagious?' Hiashi's eyes darkened, unconsciously touching his stomach. "I guess we'll just have to do something about your training, then."

Naruto's eye brightened, thinking that the clan leader would actually suspend the training. "That's right. It's such a shame that Neji-niisan isn't here."

"We don't have any other choice. You'll have to train with Hanabi."

"That's right, Otou-san, we should postpone the training- wait, what?" Naruto had his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"She just came back from a mission, but we have to start your training as the heiress, Hinata. She'll replace Neji." Hiashi explained.

"Isn't she supposed to be tired or something?" Naruto thought out loud.

"What's that?"

"Uh, I mean, Otou-sama, Hanabi is probably tired from the mission. She'll only lose."

"I will definitely not lose."

Naruto turned around and found Hanabi at the entrance of the courtyard. 'Whoa, so this is Hinata's sister. She's all grown up!'

Hanabi's pupil-less eyes stared coldly back at him. Her shoulder-long hair bounced as she walked into the empty ground. "I can still fight you and win, Onee-san."

"B-But.." Naruto swallowed hard. He thought of praying for Neji to miraculously wake up and go home, so he could train with him, instead of the not-so-little Hanabi, who looked like she wouldn't hold anything back.

"Why, are you scared, Onee-san? You can just give up, you know." Hanabi jeered as she raised one eyebrow.

'Give up?!' That was one of Naruto's most hated words, next to the word 'dewormers' and 'laxatives'. "Just shut up and fight me." He assumed the Gentle Fist stance, challenging Hanabi to attack him.

"It's settled then." Hiashi said, ignoring Naruto's choice of words. "Let the match begin!"

Meanwhile, back at the forest.

"What do you think this is?" One of the forest guards poked at a huge cocoon-like figure that was resting near an extinguished campfire.

"I don't know. Looks like a huge… insect or something." The other guard said.

"What should we do about it? Should we report it to Hokage-sama?"

"It doesn't look dangerous, but we can never be too sure. Come on, help me carry it."

"A-Alright. Are you sure this won't bite?" He hesitated.

"Don't be such a coward. It's just a- Gaaahh!" The other shinobi sat down to pick up the unknown creature. when it suddenly moved, to his surprise. The part which appeared to be the head cracked open, revealing Aburame Shino who just woke up. He slightly turned his gaze sideways and realized that he was now all alone with just the two forest guards.

"They have completely forgotten about me." He said in his deep, monotonous voice.