Hey guys! Here is the new chapter! Arriving with ultra fast delivery and being more than double length for nearly a thousand words.
Before going into the chapter I want to say that I'm very sad. Nearly a hundred hits and not even a single review arrived from last chapter? That was mean!
This chapter Beta was Hikari no Okami as usual
Enjoy
Mission
Naruto-kun and I arrived late at night that evening. Anko-sensei had insisted on going to celebrate our success on the test and took us to a nice restaurant. Even though all she bought was sweets for everyone, and in large quantities, Midori-sempai and I ate only a little bit, since too much calories wouldn't be that good for us, but Anko-sensei and Naruto-kun enjoyed the day eating without remorse.
"What a cool day!" cheered Naruto-kun as we arrived to the outer gates of the Hyuuga Haven, holding a hand to his belly which looked a little larger after all the eating.
Sora-nee-san met us at the entrance of the house.
"Congratulations" she greeted us with a nice smile, she was leaning on the door with her arms crossed over her chest "I never doubted you guys would pass this exam, after all, what was the point in all that training we did if you didn't pass, right?"
"Good Night, Sora-nee-san" I greeted her too
"Sup, Onee-chan" greeted Naruto-kun with a large v formed with his index and middle finger
Something caught my eye on the verge of my vision, so I turned around to see it better
Resting on our usual training spot on the were two machines, which apparently were created to inflict pain to the poor souls who were to use them…what was that doing here?
"Ano, Sora-nee-san…those things over there…" I asked her
"OH! Those? Nevermind those" she said with a large smile
"What are you planning to do with that?" asked Naruto-kun taking a look at the torture machines; his face was a little pale
"WAS planning, in past tense, those were just in case…" she answered
"In c-case of what?" I dared to asked, although, I had an idea of the answer
"Weeellllll…we would be using them in today's training if you were to come without good results!" she said a little too cheeky "but as I see you passed the test, no training today as prize!...because you did pass, didn't you?" her usual happy face turned and twisted into a scary one and she projected a gigantic killing intent. I thanked god we had passed and didn't have to face her in her killing mode!
"YES! WE PASSED!" both Naruto-kun and I screamed in terror
"Good! Good!" as fast as the killing intent had appeared it disappeared "Now go to take a bath and go to sleep, you can take turns for the bath if you want, but make it quickly ok? It's almost time to go to bed"
"H-hai"
"You can take a bath first Hina-chan" offered Naruto-kun "I know you don't like being dirty that much, I can cope with it" he gave me his usual grin
"Arigatou" I was truly grateful for I was starting to feel especially dirty and sweaty from the huge day we had.
I started to walk towards the bath when Sora-nee-san stopped me.
"By the way, Hinata" she called me "you father said that he wanted to talk to you after you cleaned yourself."
An audience with my father! I sure was happy to bring him good news! If it was otherwise I would leave the fire country and hide as a missing nin all my life for all I cared!
I thanked her and entered the bathroom, removed my clothes and placed them along the others which would be washed the next day. I let the water run to fill the tub while I started to wash my body, I looked at it, I had a few bruises here and there because of the fight, but nothing serious, they would all but disappear in a few days. That was very good, it wouldn't be nice if those battle marks where to remain forever.
Even if I wasn't that good as a ninja my body didn't have scars on it, at least not yet. I thought that I should be proud of that even if my figure couldn't match that of Ino nor Sakura. I recalled my fight with Oshikuru, his body was covered on scars, it was normal though, scars where the marks of a ninja; Iruka-sensei had a large scar on his face, my father had a few on his arms, I had seen them once during training, I've heard that all the Hokages are usually covered in scars from their battles too, and that not even Kunoichi, which are usually less involved in combat, were completely free of scars, but in case of necessity or vanity they covered them with genjutsu and make-up.
I wondered, did my mother have any scars on her body? Would I too have a body full of scars? Would Naruto-kun like me even if I were to be covered in battle-scars? He almost doesn't see me the way I am now; surely with a mutilated body my chances were even lower
"Habataku" I called
"Yes, Little One?" she answered me
"Can I ask you a question?" I took a large bucket of water and threw it over me
"Sure thing, you can ask me anything" I waited a pair of seconds before asking in a serious voice that carried a lot of sadness as well.
"Am I pretty?" for a few more seconds she didn't answer.
"Can you please close your eyes for a second?" she pleaded
"But can you please answ-" I said very quickly
"Yes I will, please, just close your eyes for a minute? And no matter what don't open them"
I did as she told me. With a little reluctance I closed my eyes
Suddenly I felt a warm body hugging me from behind, it was nice and I felt safe between those delicate arms
"Hina-chan, you are both lovely and gorgeous" Habataku's voice whispered on my ear "why do you doubt it?"
"Because…I know Ino and Sakura are prettier than I am" I said with the same voice I used before. Even I hadn't noticed I felt this way about the issue.
"Oh child, don't think like that" she told me "you are still blooming, there is a lot of potential in you, both as a shinobi and as a woman, I have faith in you, and you should have it too"
"I don't know" I replied with my eyes still closed "both Naruto-kun and Midori-sempai performed way better that I did today. If Naruto-kun hadn't helped me I would have been defeated by Anko-sensei's first move, and everything I did didn't help at all; if Midori-sempai hadn't got her, sensei would have stopped my attack and I would have failed!"
"But it didn't happen and luckily for us Midori was there, she already explained it today, the gennin teams are three man units so that they can help and support each other"
"But Naruto-kun would be better off with some useful teammates like Ino, or Azumi, they would be at the level of the team" I could feel tears forming on my eyes, I felt so much frustration
"But they are not his team mates!" scolded me Habakatu in a harsh voice, but after that she hugged me tighter "you are. Hyuuga Hinata is Uzumaki Naruto's teammate. If you feel that you are weak for this team then the answer is clear, you have to become stronger. Don't worry, you're just a rookie now, there's no need to be so pressed by it, but if you want we can train harder each night, practice more taijutsu, and I could teach you even some ninjutsu, sounds good?"
"O-ok" I agreed
"Now, don't worry, you will be both beautiful and skilled, a suited teammate for Naruto-kun and also, with a little more effort, a suitable wife worth of a Hokage" she gave me a parental kiss on the cheek, and I could feel how my face felt hotter because of her words.
I opened my eyes slowly "Thank you, Habataku" 'Thanks mom'
"Anytime you need it child" I could almost imagine her smile, while I wondered if the way she said child meant 'my child'
Without more delay I finished my bath and put on my pajamas, just to walk to my father's office, he stayed there until very late in the night, so I was confident I would find him there.
I walked all the way in outmust silence, even my footsteps were inaudible for me; however, I knew I had no chance to surprise my father, as soon as I was a few steps away from the door he commanded:
"Come in, Hinata"
I slid the door and stepped inside my father's office, closing the door behind me.
The office was big, traditional like the rest of the house, but elegant; it was in the second story of the building, but it had its own entrance from the outside. The large windows looked into the yard and into a small garden with a pond and a cherry tree.
"Good Night, Father" I said to him bowing in respect
"I'm proud of how much your sttutering has decresed" he said still checking a few scrolls and documents he had over his long ebon desk "please take a sit"
At least he had started with an apraise, I just hopped it wouldn't be the last one tonight
"Thank you" I said hesitant while going closer to his western style desk
We spent almost ten seconds in silence, until the door to my father's office opened, to reveal a maid from the secondary branch carrying a plate with two cups and a tea pot. She approached as a shadow, silent and almost unnoticeable, and poured the tea into the cups leaving the items in front of us, over the desk.
As soon as the maid left making a reverence, my father left his papers, took one of the cups and took a sip, closing his eyes. Some seconds passed and he opened them again to put the cup on the desk looking at me; I could almost feel as if his eyes could see into my very soul, read my mind even, it was an unpleasant sensation
"By the ruckus created by Sora-san some minutes ago, I dare to think congratulation is in order"
'Sora-nee-san was loud, I would agree on that father, but she did not make any ruck-' then my train of thought hit the breaks, had he just said 'congratulation'?
"F-father?"
"For passing each and every test, and becoming a Ninja of Konoha" he explained "you have made me proud"
I was completely speechless
"Maybe it was a mistake to drop your training and send you to the Ninja academy, then again maybe it was the best choice" by the expression he had I could tell he wasn't talking about some lack of abilities, he was talking about some other factor that had to do with the academy. And I thought that factor was a certain boy.
"Go to bed Hinata, I'm sure you are tired and a long day awaits you tomorrow"
In complete silence I stood up, made a reverence and left the office, closing the door with utmost care.
"I think so too, father" I said to the empty corridor once I was on my way to my bedroom "going to the academy was the best thing that could ever happen to me, because I got to meet him"
I walked towards my bedroom founding Naruto-kun as he was coming out of the bathroom, fully dressed in his pajamas, with his cute night hat on his head. He smiled as soon as he saw me
"Hey Hin-" but he stopped "something wrong?"
"I-I'll become stronger" I said with a deep bow "I'll be worthy"
"Oi, Hina-chan, whats the matter?" he asked me
"I understand I'm not that useful as a member of team 5 right now, you guys would be better with a stronger ninja, maybe Azumi, or Ino or someone like that, but I won't give up, I…I'll become good enough to be part of the team! I'll prove my worth" I swore
"Hina-chan" he said seriously "you'll always be worthy to me, you are the most important part of the team for me, with out you I wouldn't like team 5"
"I didn't perform that good today, but I'll get better, I promise" I said as determinated as I could, Naruto-kun replied with his own determinated smile
"Then I'll become stronger too" he raised his hand, his palm facing me. I raised my own hand and high fived him "it's a promise"
"y-yes" I smiled, and with a small friendly reverence I said "good night Naruto-kun"
"Good night, Hina-chan"
I arrived at my room without any other stop, and sighed to myself
"I've said that much…now I can't go back on my word" I said to myself
"Very well!" said Habataku "then let's train, harder than before, come on, let's check first how you do with Farsight before moving to new stuff, how does that sounds?"
"Ok" I accepted
"Then focus Hinata, show me what you can do"
I closed my eyes and focused, thinking in only one thing, Anko-sensei, after some minutes of focusing in the darkness sound and images finally started to become clear
"Very well" I was looking into a large chamber, lit by torches, several ninja were in the large room, in front of them all was the Hokage "thanks for your reports Jounins who have now genin teams under their charge" said the Hokage "the number of passing students is high this year"
In front of all the other Jounin were Kurenai-san, Asuma-san (Kurenai-san's friend which I met once), a silver haired jounin that used a mask on his lower face and used his headband to cover one of his eyes, and lastly Anko sensei
"4 genin teams, team 5, team 7, team 8, and team 10 will, starting tomorrow, take on missions. Dismissed" said the Hokague
"Hokage-sama, I need a word with you" asked Anko-sensei
"Sure, come here Anko" invited the Hokague giving a few hits to his pipe thus cleaning it from the burned tobaco, at very same time Anko-sensei and the Hokage moved a little further from the group that was leaving "what's the matter?"
"I was wondering if team 5"
"Your team" added the Hokage
"Yes that's right" she agreed "I was wondering if it was made as balanced as all the other genin teams"
"Why do you consider it is created in some other way?"
"Look at this" Anko-sensei folded her jacket to reveal a band tied to her arm where Naruto-kun had attacked her "this was done to me by one of my students, I talked to the people in the medic wing, a little more and it would be broken"
"Was it Naruto's doing?"
"Yes, the boy threw a punch that carrried a huge amount of chakra, each one of his blows release a little amount of raw chakra that make the hits stronger, besides he can perform kage bunshin to create a little army of clones, and also move faster than most and use ninjutsu from a lot of elements. But that's not all, Hyuuga Hinata is amazing too, her taijutsu is amazing but its nothing like what I've heard of the Jyuuken. Her style is more flexible, fast, agile, graceful; when she fights is more like as if she was dancing than attacking or defending, I've never seen someone fight in such an elegant way at such a young age; her ninjutsu is pretty good now, several elements as well and can use sunshin as I've never seen before. And lastly is Kagamura Midori, she is extremely capable and she is definitely not genin level, she can use ninjutsu from each and all elements, and also can read the situations and adapt better to the situation. She attacked me so the other two would know my fighting style, while Naruto-kun directed the team to work together, he and Hinata create an amazing team I had to pull several tricks to be able to hold em"
"What are you trying to say Anko?" asked directly the Hokage
"My team is stronger than a regular genin team, I'm sure they could past at least half the chunnin exam right now with little problem, I mean, they passed the test in 12.3423 minutes. That's on the rank of the Gennin teams of figures like Kakashi or Itachi"
"I understand what you say Anko, and there is a…"
Feeling tired from the usage of the technique slowly everything become blurry again and I had to stop the technique opening my eyes to my room
"Well today's was clearer than the last time we tried isn't it?" said Habataku "very good Hinata, I guess we'll just need to work on stamina and control for a little while until you are able to hold the technique for longer, go to bed"
"But I want to train now" I explained
"Don't worry; we'll train. The faster you fall asleep, the faster we can begin; just, for tonight, don't remove the necklace, please"
Following her instructions I got between the sheets and slowly fell asleep
Before I could notice I was inside the family dojo, dressed with my usual cloths.
"What's going on?" I asked to myself
"We are inside your mind" said…my voice? A girl entered the dojo. I couldn't believe what was before my very own eyes
"Why? You are…me?" I asked the girl. She was wearing my family traditional training outfit, my mother's jacket zipped up over it, and her hair was short, in a duck tail style like the one I used to wear.
"Hina-chan, I'm Habataku"
"Habataku?" I asked surprised
"From this night on, we'll train every night this way, because it will be easier for me to teach you the following moves of taijutsu if you can see how to do it. And what would be better than see your own self do it?"
"I guess that sound logical" I conceded
"Very well, get ready because we are going to work hard; your body won't be exercised so you won't become stronger just like this, so every morning you'll have to train extra hard"
"Ok, lets begin" I was eager to try this new training method!
For some hours Habataku instructed me into some extremely complicated moves, but I was sure that if I were to master them, I could be stronger
Next morning I woke up somewhat mentally tired, Habataku said it was only natural to feel that way in the beginning
Both Naruto-kun and I met with Sore-nee-san at the yard for morning training and after that we had breakfast
It was still early in the morning when we left the house to meet with Midori-sempai and Anko-sensei
Naruto-kun was very excited about doing missions, he was wondering what our first mission would be: an assassination or the rescue of a princess. I whished for something not that complicated
And to my joy and Naruto-kun's anger our first mission was to find and recover Tora, the pet cat of the wife of Fire country ruler.
"What?!" demanded Naruto-kun "catching some stupid cat?!"
"It's not stupid easy missions are assigned to Gennin, that's simple order of the things" explained Anko-sensei "now, now, don't be childish Naruto-kun, I have good news for you"
Naruto-kun looked straight into Anko-sensei eyes
"Due to your good performance in yesterday's survival exam I'm assigning you as the team's second in command, how does that sounds?" her smile was big, but not nearly as close as Naruto-kun's
"REALLY?!" he asked happy and excited "AAAAALLLL RIGHT!"
"Congratulations Naruto-kun, you deserve it" I said clapping lowly, I was so happy for him
"Well done, Naruto-kun" said Midori-sempai coming from behind him and passing her hand through his hair shaking it wildly
"So what do you say if we go and catch some Tora-butt uh guys?" asked Anko-sensei, this time Naruto-kun's reaction was more cheery
For about fifteen minutes we looked for clues, Midori-sempai asked the villagers, Naruto-kun created clones to search for the cat and I used my Byakugan to help the search. Anko-sensei just supervised us while eating some dango.
After some time Midori-sempai found a clue with a shopkeeper and we were able to reduce our area of search, finding the cat pretty quickly and easily after that. However Tora didn't seem to like Naruto-kun, so I took her on my arms and she fall sleep until we delivered her to her owner who was waiting for our return at the Mission center of the village
"Back so soon?" asked the Hokage "team 5 sure is amazing" Naruto-kun flashed a bright smile on his face
We delivered the cat to the lady and Tora instantly tried to escape again, with little success.
"Very well, we'll assign team 5 a new mission, right now the available missions include to take care of the son of a noble of fire country, clean the farming field of an ancient farmer whose back has been sprained, shopping goods and food in the next town or" Hokage-sama listed the different options but Naruto-kun interrupted him
"I don't want that kind of missions, I want a more important one not more boring stuff" he demanded
"Are you out of your mind Naruto?" asked Iruka-sensei, who was helping the Hokage with the missions.
"Naruto, it seems like I have to explain what mission are for this village" said Hokage-sama "Everyday a lot of people cross the gates to ask jobs for the ninja of this village, these can go from babysitting to assassinations. We, the higher ranked, divide the missions by difficulty into the categories A, B, C, and D. The village is divided in ranks of Hokage, Jounin, Chunnin, and Gennin. A-rank missions are performed by the strongest of Jounin or even higher, B-rank missions for Jounin and the strongest of Chunnins, C-rank for regular Chunnin and D for Gennins"
"Have you understood Naruto?" questioned Iruka-sensei
"I still want a better mission!"
Anko-sensei and Hokage-sama exchanged a look, the old man released a sigh "Very well, Naruto. I'll allow you and your team to take on a C-rank mission, it's an escort task"
Naruto-kun's eyes wide opened with happiness "AAAAALLLLLL RIGHT!" he even jumped into the sky "who do we have to protect?! A princess? A Noble Lord?!"
"Patience, Naruto-kun you will meet him right now. You can come in!" ordered Hokage-sama
A side door opened to reveal an aged man, dressed in simple cloths, he was tanned and his muscles were defined, it was clear he had worked for several years in a very laborious work.
"What?" the man asked "these are the ninjas who are going to protect me? They are merely brats!" he was holding a bottle of sake in one hand, and he had clearly drank a little too much from it
"Team 5 meet Tazuna from the Wave country, Expert Bridge Builder" introduced him the Hokage
This was the person we had to escort?
Starting on next chapter we will finally get to the Wave Country Arc (after a good 15 chapters! I thought we'd never get here!)
Please, Please, Read and Review, Annon and Flame reviews accepted!
R&R Onegai!