Hello guys!
Happy 2009! I hope all your wishes may come true!
Here it is, the new chapter for White Hearth, I hope you enjoy it
As usually the beautiful Hikari no Okami was the one making the favor of checkig this chapter and making it understandable. Thanks Okami, we love you
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Swim or Sink Together!
The poison had been running through my veins for several minutes and my limbs felt stiffer and stiffer by the second. My eyelids felt extremely heavy and slowly the strength in my body was washed away… soon I would be unable to keep my eyes open and I'd be forced to the ground by the weight of my own body
'What a fearsome poison, luckily it's just to immobilize…this is a Jounin level technique, a real Jounin level attack. Just one attack, that's all she needed to put me out of combat, this is the real difference between our levels, the level of a mediocre plain genin girl and a beautiful and successful jounin woman. This is so frustrating!'
I fell to my knees and tried to endure it using my hands to stop a complete fall, but after a few seconds all of my resistance was overpowered by the poison. I knew that if I were to continue like this I would definitely fail the test, but I was unable to even keep my eyes open.
So I closed them.
Seconds later I felt someone's hands running through my clothes "don't worry Hina-chan, you'll be ok!" Naruto-kun voice came in a whisper warming me completely inside; well it was either that or the hot-feeling liquid that was moving inside my throat. The stiffness completely disappeared after a minute or so, and I was able to open my eyes as my strength came back. Naruto-kun was holding my head, my body was laid on the ground face up and I could see we were still in the forest
"Naruto-kun!" I was sincerely happy to see him, without thinking I almost jumped to him and threw my arms around his neck, just to realize a second later what I had done, just after I felt his cheek touching mine, as fast as I had approached, I moved away from him, assuming a traditional sitting position with my back slightly towards him and feeling my face was extremely hot
"I-I. Well. Thanks. For helping me. But you shouldn't have" I said fast, making stops every few words
"As a matter of fact Hina-chan, you helped yourself" he said, I turned slightly to see that he had a small vial in his hand "I'm glad you study that herbology , and even more that you know how to create an antivenom" his smile was sincere
"So that hot feeling inside me…?"
"I guess it was the antivenom" he replied
"But wait, how did you managed to come here? Weren't you affected by the poison?" I demanded
"Well 'the fox'" I perfectly understood this as 'the Kyuubi no Kitsune' "apparently grants me increased stamina, this seems to be reflected into faster regeneration and some resistance to poison, the venom did affect me but it was slower, that's how I was able to come here and help you, I already took a dose of antivenom myself" he said confidently
"I…Thank you Naruto-kun" I replied in whispers too "but you shouldn't have, we are not in the same team anymore"
"Wha?" his reply was a little too high and within the next few seconds a barrage of shuriken flew through the bushes we were hidden in, surely Anko-sensei had heard us. With swift movements we both managed to move from harm's way, yet we moved to hide into the same place
"Naruto-kun as much as this hurts me we can't help each other, only two of us three can pass this test" I explained to him
"say what?" his voice denoted surprise "that can't be right, we've been together a lot of time!"
"I know!" this was extremely hard "but as of right now things don't look good, I don't think we sh-"
"Naruto! Hinata!" Midori-sempai voice interrupted me "Don't let this thing get to you! Remember what I told you the very first day we met!" she was shouting, yelling at us, but not words of anger nor a scold, she was giving us council; always the Midori-sempai that would help us no matter the situation
"You see Hina-chan?" Naruto-kun resumed the talking "we have always been better when we worked together, there's no reason for us to change a strategy that has worked for us for three years, either we swim together or sink together" he spited in his hand and offered it for me to shake. With reluctance I took my hand to my mouth and placed some of my own drool into it, and gave his hand a shake…it was disgusting, but still to be sharing this boyish ritual with Naruto-kun made me happy
"Swim or sink together" I replied "but what about Midori-sempai?"
"She can join the perfect combination or be beaten by it" he said with a confident smile, as if he knew Midori-sempai would surely join
"O-ok" and that feeling made me regain my will
"Then let's Rock this test!" Naruto-kun made his trademark sign "Kagebunshin no Jutsu" and a little army of blonds gearing orange jackets charged through the woods and into the area where Anko-sensei and Midori-sempai were.
"A head on attack?" asked Anko-sensei when she saw a dozen Naruto-kuns charging at her "This won't take you anywhere" she assured
"Wind edge no Jutsu" all the blue eyed cried together taking a kunai out, and the air around said weapons materialized thanks to their chakra, sharpening it and making them longer, around the size of a short sword and empowering them enough to cut keen through a wall, Naruto-kun had mastered that technique
"Shadow Snake no Jutsu!" but Anko-sensei countered with one of her own, from her coat several snakes came out and stopped Naruto-kun's blades, receiving the stabs directly
Naruto-kun, along with his clones, growled. Leaving the stabbed knives into the dying snakes, he took a step behind and shouted "Salamander no Jutsu" while performing few seals, ending with the tiger one, the air that once sharpened the fierce kunai was now feeding a gigantic flame, created by the dozen or so ninja tools, the flame roared and consumed the snakes in an instant proceeding to advance through their charcoaled bodies towards Anko-sensei with dire speed, so that she was forced to jump away leaving the fire in the ground while she took the skies.
Naruto-kun was giving it all to Anko-sensei, and he was doing well; however, I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up that pace too long. Even if his stamina was something else, his chakra control and ability weren't that good yet to be able to continue using jutsus like that. It was up to me, even if I didn't like it, to give it my all as well if I wanted this to be over before Naruto-kun was too exhausted to move, which was not only terrible for the test, but also dangerous for him... I had never actually seen a chakra exhaustion case but I had read about them, and I had seen how bad could someone get if they overcharged their chakra system…I didn't want to see Naruto-kun as he was the day he learned Kage Bunshin!
With resolve based in the well-being of Naruto-kun and my own fears of seeing him injured, I joined the fray and began focusing chakra, ready to perform my taijutsu special move, the moon jump
"Windball no Jutsu!" marking a few more seals and pressing the air between his hands Naruto-kun created a chakra-molded sphere of tight air and threw it at Anko-sensei
"Don't underestimate me" said our teacher while she threw a single shuriken at the jutsu Naruto-kun had used against her, the little air ball hit the shuriken and although it was completely damaged the jutsu was not strong enough to continue its way towards the intended target "That jutsu had too little chakra placed into it Sunshine, it'd never hit me" affirmed Anko-sensei placing a foot on the ground. That's when I made my move
"Its intention wasn't to hit you" Midori-sempai had read the situation perfectly
"Moon Jump!" concentrating my chakra I moved at a extreme speed and appeared above Anko-sensei
"Naruto-kun's intention was to attract your attention so that you wouldn't notice Hinata-san until it was too late" informed Midori-sempai
I threw a barrage of kunai and shuriken at Anko-sensei but with blinding speed she took out a kunai of her own and deflected my attack, the ground around her was covered with my weapons…but I had already foreseen it. Actually, that attack was also a diversion.
"See underneath the underneath" said Midori-sempai, Naruto-kun and I always considered that to be her catch phrase… at least one of many, but she kept repeating she was only borrowing it from one of the best ninja she had ever seen or battled alongside
All the weapons I threw at Anko-sensei had steel wire attached to them; a little extra I added after my duel with Oshikuru, placing the ends of the wires between mi teeth I marked a few seals
"Grasping Fingers no Jutsu!"
Taking once more the steel wires in my hands the electricity of my technique ran along them, the close proximity and concentration of the static forces created arcs of lightning to jump between the wires, approaching at great speed towards Anko-sensei; little did I know it had been in vain.
"Earth Stomp no Jutsu!" Anko-sensei marked a few seals and hit the ground with her foot, creating a wave to run all around the ground close to her, tossing away everything in its path, including the weapons that had the steel wires attached to them.
The multiple weapons ended far away from each other, discharging the attack of my jutsu harmlessly. Landing on my feet I cursed silently
"Very Good 'Bright Eyes'!" praised Anko-sensei, "that was a very close attack! That could have gone very bad for me!"
"But it's not over yet!" Naruto-kun was not giving up "Stone Arm no Jutsu!" using a large concentration of chakra several rocks floated from the ground a moment before swiftly attaching themselves to Naruto-kun's Arm
He charged forward trying to hit Anko-sensei while his other clones readied shurikens. I wouldn't be left behind, so I took out my fan
But Naruto-kun's attack was too straight forward, and using the kunai she had already in her hand, Anko-sensei cut all the rocks that enveloped my teammate's arms after easily dodging his first punch. The jutsu was severely damaged: most of the rocks simply became sand due to the strength of the cut
The clones threw their shuriken and I used my technique "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" with a swing from my fan a few edges of wind flew towards our sensei but once again she was too fast. Taking Naruto-kun's arm she threw him at my jutsu "NO!" I screamed in terror seeing how the blades cut Naruto-kun's body, but a second after that it exploded lightly in a smoke cloud: it was a Kage bunshin.
As the energy of the remnants of his stone arm technique was released in a rush, the few stones still attached to him flew in all direction while Anko-sensei stepped away with a serpent-like gliding, the shuriken were stopped completely and the clones were hit by the rocks too. A lone blond stood on the field between the smokes created by the disappearance of his clones, a few bruises product of the rocks hitting his body showed fresh blood on his skin
"Just a few minutes since the test started and already so close" praised Anko-sensei "Yet so tired after so little…is this really all you guys got?"
Naruto-kun answered panting "Don't count on that…we are just getting started" he smirked but the sweat was running steadily down his face "Right, Hina-chan?" I knew that meant he was going to attack with all he got, and he was going to use his best: Taijutsu, preparing for that I activated my Jyuuken, the veins round by eyes remarked as I used a seal and cried out loud my bloodline technique's name, invoking its power.
Both Naruto-kun and I ran at Anko-sensei, he was going directly to the front while I took his left flank, both of us also making seals
"Water Cannon no Jutsu!" he performed his technique
"Fan the Flames no Jutsu!" closely followed by mine
His attack was a gigantic ball of chakra molded water from his mouth (I didn't liked that technique that much, even if it was from my main element, because I couldn't help thinking of it as a huge spit), my technique was a cone of flames that used the air moved from a swing of my fan as fuel and transportation.
His frontal attack and my area attack limited Anko-sensei's options of movement. She wouldn't move up if she could help it. If she was airborne it would leave her unable to fully defend herself from our techniques; on the other hand Naruto-kun's technique buckled movement forward and my technique used against her left side blocked all front, left and back. Even if the damage from my technique would be lower than receiving Naruto-kun's technique, Anko-sensei wouldn't risk passing through mine because that would entail at least some minor burning, therefore making me pass the test. Her only option was to go left to dodge our attacks.
And she did as expected to. I was ready for this and had prepared a little chakra to catch up, but Naruto-kun was faster, disappearing in a flash of orange he reappeared in front on Anko-sensei
"Sunshin?! No, this is no regular body flicker… it's different" our sensei acknowledged
"Surprised?" teased Naruto-kun "this is the technique I learned from the forbidden scroll!"
"It can't be…!"
"It's still far from perfect but this is the basics of the fourth's technique!"
"The Yellow Flash" said Anko-sensei under her voice "I'm impressed you're able not only to perform Kage Bunshin at your age Naruto-kun, but also such a powerful technique as that one" at that moment I performed my technique
"Moon Jump!" catching up with them and appearing behind Anko-sensei
"And not only Sunshine but Hinata has some tricks up her sleeve too!" smiled Anko-sensei "But will that be good enough to hit me?"
We both attacked with our best taijutsu Naruto-kun attacked with his fierce chakra charged punch while I used my flexible and mobile Lunar Style
Even while double teamed and flanked Anko-sensei proved to be more than capable enough to hold us both continuously deflecting our attacks while keeping in movement…however something was amiss
She was barely stopping our attacks, even her expression changed, she was completely concentrated on stopping us and for a second I didn't knew what was making us perform so well but after a few punches I understood it: We knew how she was going to defend, after watching Midori-sempai fight her and after throwing everything we had at her we were growing accustomed to her movements, to her defense, and could target the areas in which we knew she would have more problems defending. After seeing Naruto-kun's confident face I realized he had noticed this way before I did, even if only unconsciously
Suddenly Naruto-kun threw a punch at Anko-sensei which she was forced to stop by receiving it completely in her own arm…that couldn't be considered a direct hit, but it was close to it!
Anko-sensei was forced to slide on her feet backwards for a few yards due to the power of the attack, but the large concentration of chakra had left Naruto-kun completely empty. He fell on his knees exhausted but still conscious
"Hina-chan! NOW!" he yelled. I marked a few seals
"Water Serpent no Jutsu!" using the sweet on both Naruto-kun and I as the reagent I created several thin snakes of salt water that flew at Anko-sensei, this would be one of my last jutsus too, so I pulled almost all the chakra I had and used it not only multiply the water to the maximum I could, but also to make it as powerful I could
"Shit this could be bad" cursed Anko-sensei with good reason because now that her arm had been weakened by Naruto-kun's hit, it would be harder for her to defend properly from that side, the very angle I was targeting.
But harder doesn't mean she couldn't, after all she was a Jounin, the same as my father.
Our teacher took out a scroll with her other hand and yelled "Release!" and suddenly a barrage of senbon needles flew towards me, hitting my jutsu completely, stopping its advance, and still several of them were left flying towards me!
After using that chakra quantity in the technique I needed a few seconds before being able to do anything. I wouldn't be able to dodge the attack, and even if the damage would be probably not that deadly it would be enough to take me out of combat.
That was it the test for me, I had failed
…
But instead of the piercing metal sensation, what reached me was a large roar! The sound was huge, feral, fierce, intimidating even! The roar was a projection of chakra, so strong I was almost swept from my feet by the shockwave
Said shockwave was strong enough to stop the weapons that were flying towards me, which fell to the ground spinning out of control due to the force.
"Naruto-kun?" I asked turning my face to see my friend with his mouth half open, his canines slightly more noticeable than usual his eyes closed by the tiredness
"Raw chakra…" said Anko-sensei under her voice
"Don't get distracted!" Midori-sempai voice called us, but when I turned to see the snakes that had been keeping her imprisoned I noticed they were around a large wood doll. I shoot my face up and noticed Midori-sempai was standing upside down on a tree branch above us, she threw a small brown ball at Naruto-kun and it landed gently (WAY too gently for the speed at which it crossed the distance between the two) in his mouth. I heard her whispering voice as if she were standing beside Naruto-kun asking him to chew it, and I saw how his mandible moved upward almost as if pushed by some force other than his own. His eyes shoot opened burning with renewed strength.
"That was a soldier's pill!" reproached Anko-sensei at Midori-sempai like a kid that accuses a playmate of cheating
"Hey, don't look at me! I'm only the support here" replied the white haired girl with a smile, her wakizashi sword in one hand and her fan (small like mine) in her other hand
Whirling around, Anko-sensei threw a handful of kunai at sempai, but with a seal-less swing of her fan she said "Wind Wall no Jutsu" and the kunai were lost in the woods deflected by her technique
Using the distraction provided by Midori-sempai Naruto-kun threw himself at Anko-sensei in a head butt while I threw my last shuriken at her, but even in the last moments our sensei had such a fast reaction! She was raising her knee to hit Naruto-kun in the stomach and stop him that way while she moved her arm to stop my shuriken, I had seen my father stop my shuriken with his fingers while training with him when I was young, surely she was able to do it too!
After seeing Anko-sensei fight I knew she would be able to stop both my attack and Naruto-kun's!
But a sword landed behind her and she suddenly stopped her movements!
"Adaptable High-Jutsu! Nara Technique! Shadow Seal!" Midori-sempai shouted and that's when I noticed the wakizashi had landed in the ground exactly where Anko-sensei's shadow was projected by the morning sun
Even if Naruto-kun's head but wasn't that strong it found its mark on sensei's chest while my shuriken managed to scratch her arm
Midori-sempai jumped down from the tree, but she was also tired because once her feet touched the ground she fell on her butt
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" complained Anko-sensei "That was sharp! That counts as it…For sealing my movements, hitting me and cutting me you three pass the exam! Congratulations Team 5!"
I couldn't believe what I had just heard.
…
We did it! We really did! We passed!!
Okami's note: Yo, it's been a while, ne? You know the drill, point out my mistakes, especially since this time around I was as beaten as team 5. Tired as hell, really, sigh. Hope you enjoy the chappie.
Autor's Notes: Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed it
While I was waiting for Okami to finish betaing this chapter I was reading the reviews you guy have sent so far…it's like the 8th time I read them or so, I just really enjoy reading them
I'd like to thank you all Darksmile, Kitsoa, Fanonanime2006, unclejoex3, aiko-sayury, magic8, dgfriendly, .lover., ichi-sama, moonfire-fox, justwriter2, cute in purple, .rocks, dastek, silentstinger, chewie cookies, and all the others! (You guys are just too many xDDD can't write all the names, would take me a whole chapter!)
So in this chapter I'll answer a few of your doubts and your comments
1st than all Naruto couldn't defeat Sasuke in the first match of the fanfic (because yes they will fight a few more times) whats the point on having Sasuke as a rival if he was able to defeat him in the academy? Besides, Sasuke is still the best of his generation, Naruto is better than in the original storyline but he isnt beyong genin level, nor is Hinata. Im going to use Sasuke as a objective for Naruto, a step on the road to Hokage, but don't worry Sasuke will have to face defeat soon
2nd I'm glad you guys are able to cope so far with Sora-nee-san, she's cool, even if her entrance to the story seemed somewhat forced, her appearance will be explained at it's own time, mean while I'll try to present more of her for those of you who didn't read Dame Wren's work as she who created her
3rd Midori is not an Uchiha, nor a Nara, she is a Kagamura, that is, a Character of my Own. In the following chapters the mysteries about her will be explained little by little, but everything will be understood soon I promise, trust me, I have a shock waiting for you once all of Habataku's and Midori's secrets are revealed
4th On the next or so chapter I'll give a decent explanation about Hinata's and Naruto's taijutsu so that you could understand a little more clearly their style, so will be explained the Adaptable High-Jutsu Midori used in this chapter
5th Now the review button is a large, long, green, thingie, on the end of the chapter, there for you to do click on it and tell me what you thing about my story. What you like, what you don't like, what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what makes you go "Awwww" and what makes you want to kill me, please go there and write a review, this way I can write a batter story that you all would enjoy and so that I could improve what little skill I posses, Annonimous reviews and flames are allowed, so what are you waiting for? =DDD