Part 3

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They still weren't done with done with water training, apparently. Control was good and all, she supposed, but she'd spent four days now with Jiraiya doing little more than basic movement on the surface of the water. She was itching to do something fun, something exciting, like learning a cool jutsu. Only Ebisu's words about how much of an advantage she could get from mastering the basics held her back from letting her grumbles escalate into a full tantrum. The idea of being able to outperform Sasuke in basic jutsu by the time he returned was tempting enough to let her whether the boredom for now. But still│c

"│cOf course it│fs important Naru-chan. You've largely mastered water-walking while consciously focussing. If you can master the art of doing it while thinking completely about something else then not only will it help you fight on the water, but also hold any chakra-forms you are using while being in the middle of combat. So to occupy your mind you are going to learn how to dance."

That sounded fairly reasonable she had to grudgingly admit to herself, there was also the chance that it might actually be quite useful.

"Okay," She said, her voice still laden with suspicion, "But why are you wearing swimmers too?"

Blood was already starting to trickle from the old man's nose as he relied to her. "Well, you are obviously going to need a dance partner, and you wouldn't want my clothes to get wet would you?"

That bit sounded considerably less reasonable.

In the end they decided he'd be fully dressed when he danced with her.

Even then she only wished that she could be wearing more than the bikini, but waterlogged clothes weren't much fun, and she was back to falling in a lot. The old letch was sporting a huge goofy grin as he held her and led her through the dance steps. He must have long ago learnt the art of dancing without thinking about it, because it was pretty obvious what he was thinking about.

She improved of course, both in the dances, and in the frequency and level to which she slipped down into the water.

"Knowing these dances," Jiraiya told her in the middle of a routine, "could also be useful if you ever need to be a guard or infiltrate a high society function."

Every time she seemed to be have the basics of the dance under control Jiraiya would switch them to a new one, until finally her feet stopped slipping below the waterline even while performing completely unfamiliar steps.

She looked up from her feet to her sensei, saw him smiling right at her. She could almost feel a measure of pride emanating from him, for being able to do this even with all the distractions. She could almost feel│c She could almost feel│c

She could feel his hand on her ass.

She wasn't that good at ignoring distractions

"You need to be able to hold your chakra forms through any distraction," Jiraiya told her when they were back on shore, trying but not quite succeeding in holding his serious face, "No matter how unexpected or unwanted that distraction might be."

After that it was a while before Jiraiya was able to do anything physical, and longer still before he was comfortable peeing.

The letch was still smiling though.

---

She checked her dress in the bathroom mirror one final time, making sure it wasn't booby trapped, or styled to cunningly be more revealing than it had appeared before she put it on. It seemed safe, but she wasn't sure she trusted it. It was one of the things that Jiraiya had given her, and his recent behaviour had proven that he was well and truly capable of stepping outside the bounds of acceptable levels of perversion.

Thinking of his recent behavior made her want to both wince and grin all at once. She didn't like what he'd done, or more like she didn't like that he'd done it. On the other hand if he hadn't acted up she wouldn't have injured him, and wouldn't have the rest of the afternoon off. On the balance of it all she decided to be happy.

Well, everything here seemed fine. The neckline of the pale blue dress was a little bit low for comfort, but the loose skirt was long enough to stop it seeming indecent. Time to try the receptionist.

"Hi there. I'm one of Hyuga Hinata's classmates, and I'm having trouble remembering where her room was..."

Piece of cake. Sickly sweet voice and her most innocent and confused expression and she let right through to the hospital wards. Would never have worked in her normal body, so she supposed Jiraiya some thanks for forcing her to stay like this the whole time; he wasn't going to get any though.

The door to her room was shut but not locked, so she let herself right in. Childhood had taught her that waiting around for an invitation got you no where.

"Hi Hinata!" she said dragging a chair over to the bed and summoning as much enthusiasm as she could, given the heavily bandaged state of the girl, "I got the afternoon off training so I thought I'd come on over." The other girl was lying there looking more than a little stunned, and Naruto winced internally remembering too late that the girl had never been the best at dealing with her outgoing nature. "I would have come by before now but I've been training really hard so I can kick your jerk of a cousin's ass during the finals. Don│ft worry I'll make him regret being such a jerk to you!"

For a while it seemed like Hinata might not reply at all, like she'd just keep shrinking back on herself, maybe retreat fully into a found seashell or something, but finally she found her voice. "Ahh│c ano│c umm│c wasn't Naruto going to fight Neiji-san?"

"That's right! I'm going to kick his ass!" Naruto nearly jumped out of her seat, already seeing Neiji on the ground at her feet grovelling for her and Hinata's forgiveness│c

Her triumphant pose might not have been so strained if it hadn't taken Hinata so long to reply again. "Ano│c but│c you're a girl│c" Hinata's head ducked down, and Naruto could just make out a mumbled "Sorry."

"Well yeah," Naruto admitted sheepishly, "But it wasn't my idea. Kakashi-sensei left to train Sasuke, so I had to find someone to help me train for the finals. Anyway, he's really strong and powerful, but he's a complete letch and he'll only train me if I stay like this all the time, and he keeps making me do all these weird things for him."

"Weird things?" Hinata said in something between a whisper and a gasp, "He makes you do weird things for him?"

"Yeah. But I think his training is really going to help me kick your cousins ass, so it'll all be worthwhile."

Hinata nodded jerkily, combined with how pale her skin was becoming now it made Naruto wonder if maybe she should call over a nurse or something. "Ano... do you like doing those things with him?"

"I guess you know. I mean he hasn't gotten me to do anything that's really fun for me yet, but mostly it's okay. Well, except for what he did to my ass. I didn't like that at all. The stupid pervert." Naruto looked up to find that Hinata had gone as still and silent as a statue. "Hey. Yo, Hinata? Are you okay there?"

She seemed to unfreeze a bit at a time. A hand then a leg then head... until she was fully a person again, not just an inanimate object. She looked slowly up to him and wet her lips. She was trembling like she was scared of something, even as she started to speak again. "Do you... I mean would you ever do something like that with someone else... Someone like... someone younger I mean?"

"I dunno. Ero-sensei is a total perv, but he is very talented and very experienced at that sort of thing."

Hinata sagged back down into the bed for a second, but then seemed to find her second wind. "Well maybe later... you would... with me..."

"Oh! Hinata..." Naruto couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it earlier. Of course Hinata would want help training too. Of course she'd want to surpass her cousin so that he could never humiliate her like that again. She leaned forward and reached out to give the dark-haired girls hand a quick squeeze. Watched the way her lavender eyes traced the lines of her own face before dropping down below it. "Yeah of course you can. I'm sorry I didn│ft offer or anything. We'll do it after the Finals, when you're feeling better."

After that Naruto really did have to get the nurse. Hinata had passed out.

---

The kage bunshin had always been Naruto's signature move, and it had always been a hell of a lot easier for her than a lot of the other techniques, but this time it barely felt like he was flexing his mental muscles. She'd only created two of the clones, but even still, perhaps there really was something to the old man's garbage about refining her chakra control

"Okay, so why do I need the clones Ero-sensei? Planning on taking us all on at once?" Naruto cracked her knuckles, grinning at the prospect. In truth even a hundred clones probably wouldn't be enough to take on a man of Jiraiya's power, but after yesterday's stunt she'd welcome even the slimmest chance to pound him into ground again.

The old man just snorted however, not bothering to reply, but instead asking a question of his own. "Have you ever noticed that when a kage bunshin is destroyed that you know exactly how it happened?"

"Uh, I guess." Had he? Sure, he usually knew what had happened, but anyone would, right? You only had to watch the fight to know what was going on, didn't you?

"That's because when you dismiss a kage bunshin some of its memories are transferred directly to you. That is the techniques true brilliance. Today while you continue to work on mastering your control your bunshin are going to work on mastering some jutsu. When you dismiss them at the end of the day, anything they have learnt will be transferred to you, so you can master the jutsu without actually having to study them yourself."

"Okay," Naruto agreed, "But why can│ft I just learn the jutsu myself?"

"That's because," Jiraiya said, forming a quick hand seal and forming four clones of his own, "While they are studying with two of my clones, you are going to be too busy fighting me."

This time when Jiraiya grinned Naruto wasn't at all sure that he was thinking something ecchi.

---

The cries of not too distant battle were quite audible from the little forest glade, but the two kage bunshin who occupied it focussed their attention on each other.

"I'm not pulling my top off for you, you stupid letch!" The most female of the two almost growled.

"Not off," the older bunshin reassured her, "Just up a bit. Remember the seal that Ochimaru put on you in the forest, well put on the real you at least? Well we're going to need to do something about that. You might want to lie down for this too." he muttered, pulling a sealed vial of ink and a fine bristled brush from within his clothes.

"Huh, what?" Naruto added intelligently, reluctantly following the old perverts advice. It seemed a little odd that the man knew about what had happened in the forest of death without Naruto having told him, but then he was the second most powerful ninja in the village, Naruto supposed.

"The seal Ochimaru placed on you during the second test," the older bunshin said, dipping his brush to the ink and then starting to paint upon Naruto-bunshin's stomach, "It cuts you off from the Kyuubi's chakra, but it does more than that too. It also destabilises your own chakra control. To master jutsu without injuring yourself you are going to need that control, and unfortunately since you are only a bunshin you don│ft have the actual seal on you, so I can't just remove it. Luckily your brilliant sensei has developed a solution."

"Wait," Naruto found herself wondering aloud, "if you remove it then why don't you just remove the one on the real me?"

"It works by magnifying the flaws in your chakra control. If I remove it now then yes, control will be much easier for you, but if you continue to train with the seal as a handicap then you have the chance to iron away flaws that you might otherwise never even feel. So instead I've designed a seal of my own. Thirty seven different runes, a very complex and delicate matter, rebalancing your chakra, but if I do this right then you should be able to learn jutsu while the real you continues to work on your control. Almost done. Just wait a second." He pressed a single fingertip just above her belly button, muttered a single phrase and warmth briefly shot through Naruto's stomach as the seal activated.

She sat up, gingerly touching her stomach and finding the ink was now dry to the touch. It looked, well, complex. Asymmetrical too, like a number of beautiful characters dropped randomly on her stomach. All the seals she'd seen used so far looked a great deal prettier, better organised, designed instead of dumped. She wondered whether something like this could really be useful.

Well, there was only really one way to find out now, wasn't there?

"Hey, Ero-sensei, what jutsu 're ya teaching me first?"

---

She was a different sort of sore this evening. When she'd first started coming to these baths the hot water had helped relax her overworked muscles, but today's pains were from when her teacher had struck her, from when he'd thrown her to land hard upon the surface of the water. Thanks to the healing that being the jailor of the Kyuubi provided her with she didn't think any of the bruises were visible any more, but that didn't mean that she couldn't still feel them.

Training today had not only been tiring and difficult today, however, but also fun. Instead of just endless and trying tasks to improve her control she'd actually been fighting. Her teacher was better than her by a wide margin, and she'd been fighting not one of him but three, yet still it hadn't been too frustrating. It seemed that Jiraiya wasn't completely useless for everything after all; He seemed to have quite a good idea of exactly how much to hold back. He had pushed her hard, but not over whelmed her, nor left her feeling that her attacks were completely futile. His two clones had rarely attacked, moving in only when she lost sight of them, or forgot they were there. The purpose, he had explained to her, was purely to keep her more aware during battle; to stop her being surprised, and to help her react well even if she was.

She wasn't sure if it had worked, but it had been fun.

"You're wincing," Haruka commented, glancing over at her, "But smiling. Was he a bit rough today?"

"Not more than normal training is I guess, just it was a bit different today, is all."

"Oh really? I know that your sensei can be quite," Haruka paused for a moment, gently coughing, enthusiastic, "but I thought that was all it was. What exactly to you mean by different?"

"Haruka!" Miyu actually seemed a little upset, "you can't just ask her questions about things like that, especially in such a place. You'll embarrass the poor girl."

"Oh it doesn't matter," Naruto said. One day she'd have to ask Miyu what it was about training that she found so embarrassing. "I don't mind talking about it really. I mean its just training right. It's a pretty normal thing to do, right? Not like there aren't dozens of other people out there doing the same thing, so I don│ft mind talking about it."

Miyu suddenly sounded like she was choking, and Naruto turned to her worried. Haruka however didn't seem in the least bit worried, just leaning towards Naruto and gently pushing one of her elbows against her. "In that case spill. I want all the gory details."

"Well it wasn't gory or nothing weird like that, just, well... You know that Ninja's can create clones of themselves right? Well, sensei made two clones of himself, and they all trained me at once."

Miyu's voice was quiet, and sounded a little worried. Something like a cross between one of Sasuke's squealing fan-girls and a disapproving woman. "Oh Naru-chan, that sounds a little bit... dangerous."

"Or thrilling," Haruka interjected, "How was it? Good right?"

"Well," Naruto thought back over the afternoon, trying to ignore the jutsu parts not wanting to make things more complicated that necessary, "At first it was just really confusing. He kept coming at me from all these different directions and places, and yeah... But I got used to it after a while, worked out how to focus on all of them at the same time."

Haruka laughed aloud, "Sounds like you are developing some real talent girl! Girls as wild as you normally aren't so monogamous."

"Haruka..." Miyu cautioned again, but she sounded sort of breathless, and her shoulders were shaking.

"I guess not..." Naruto muttered, just wondering what the hell monogamous meant.

"Sometimes," Haruka said sighing, "I really wish my husband was a little bit more like your sensei."

Women really were a little strange.

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