Title: Changing It To Fit

Chapter: 4

Rating: T

A/N: Wow, 18 reviews on one chapter! I'm astounded...I guess this is a better story than I had thought? -shrug- Or perhaps it was just a good day to update. Either way, thanks for all the reviews guys.

Thanks to Lionhart, an anonymous reviewer who left me a page-long review. It was very helpful and gave me a few more quirks to add to the plot. Most of what you said had occurred to me already, the medic bit with Naruto I hadn't thought of...nor the battle tactics part. I had intended several things but they are not to be revealed in an author's note. I'll be writing them soon enough. Also, I see what you mean by 'more harm than good'...heh.

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"Naruto-kun, I'm going to visit Sasuke-kun and Hebi-chan. Do you want to come with?" Hinata asked after the door to Naruto's apartment had been opened by said blond.

"Sure Hinata-chan. Just wait a moment while I water my plants."

"Hai."

Hinata sighed. The last four years had been difficult on her. Her father still thought she was a talentless sop. He had recently been setting Hanabi against her in an attempt to either motivate her to work harder or to find an excuse to make Hanabi heir instead. Hanabi showed a lot of talent in the Hyuuga arts and wasn't afraid to show it. Hanabi had gained an arrogant attitude thanks to Hiashi and her relationship with Neji had died when she threatened to use the Seal on him.

Naruto had shown a lot of progress outside of the Academy. He still thought that it was worthless, that thought was only proven in his mind when he told Hinata that he already knew everything being taught there anyway. Hinata had to admit, with all the reading and training they had been doing it was pretty boring. Of course, listening to someone teach something you'd known and been using for a few years could get dull real fast.

Sasuke and Hebi had been watched over by nannies in the Uchiha Compound. Sasuke would do his best to scare them away and once Hebi turned three and was aware of her brother's actions, began to copy him. Sasuke was still hell-bent on killing Itachi. Hinata was sad that he was still on his Avenger's path, she knew what had happened to him at the end from stories that Hina had told her. Hinata had hoped that by giving him support and friendship early would have swayed him from his 'ambition' but her hopes had died. Hebi was a happy six year old however and Hinata enjoyed playing with her. Sasuke was still friendly with her and Naruto after he'd offered his friendship. He did tend to brood a lot and was usually cold to anyone not on his list of friends and family.

The three trained together often in the beginning, Hinata would bring scrolls from her library and they would read together. Hinata had 'found' a scroll on tree climbing and water-walking which she had 'left at home' but she had already perfected the exercise and so began to teach the boys.

Hinata smiled, watching Naruto glare daggers at Sasuke while the dark boy was standing vertically at the top of a tree was funny. Especially after the blond had proven his inability to do the exercise as easily as the Uchiha by rocketing away from the tree a few times.

About three days after that Naruto had mastered the tree climbing exercise and then proceeded to beat Sasuke in learning the water-walking. Sasuke had brooded for a month afterwards.

They'd also been working on learning some medical jutsu together after Hinata had 'dreamed' that she'd died of a stomach wound with no med-nin to be found for miles. Sasuke only tried half-heartedly when it came to this and usually left as early as possible when he found out they were practicing such things. He'd taken to training on his own of late.

Naruto was ecstatic when he found out that he could perform small medical jutsus as the scrolls they learned from said that it took a lot of chakra control. It was supposedly his worst area in the Academy.

"I'll show them!" He would often say.

Hinata excelled at medical jutsu, she could use her Byakugan to see minute details of the human body. She'd bought Naruto a book on human anatomy for his last birthday when he'd commented on how it would come in handy. She also was good with herbs, she could make a bruise balm imbued with chakra so that it was 60 percent more effective.

Naruto had, on his own, befriended Shikamaru and Chouji. He could be found playing shogi, cloud watching, and eating barbecue with his two friends nearly every weekend. He was still a chronic prankster, though most people didn't know it. Naruto had developed a stealth technique all on his own to help him pull off pranks on a whole range of nin. From Hokage to Academy student, no one was safe from his pranks. Only the Hokage and a handful of Jounin could catch him in the act, much less evade his prank on them all together. Oiroke no jutsu had been born nearly six months ago when Naruto had discovered that a majority of male nin were closet perverts. He had declared to Hinata that he would 'come up with the ultimate secret weapon against perverts'. Hinata had only smiled, remembering Hina's memories of the infamous Oiroke no Jutsu.

For some reason, Naruto still had an issue with a regular Bushin. As far as Hinata could tell, there was something interfering every time he tried to gather the chakra for that technique and only that technique. It was a mystery, even to her powerful Byakugan.

Hinata, no matter what her father thought, was an amazing kunoichi. She had worked hard those four years to perfect her Jyuuken style, along with the techniques Hina had developed for it. In the increasingly frequent bouts with her sister, Hinata still never won. She didn't see the point in putting to much effort into a fight to satisfy her father's petty wishes. He wanted a strong heiress? Well, he was just going to have to wait until she was good and ready to reveal her exceptional talents!

They left Naruto's apartment building and ran across rooftops to Sasuke's house in the Uchiha district. Sasuke, as was typical of him, was training. Hinata knew that he wasn't going to stop anytime soon so her and Naruto spent the afternoon playing ninja with Hebi. Sasuke came in and asked them if they were still on for training tomorrow and Naruto threw a chair-cushion at him.

"You were just training teme! Take a break for once!"

Sasuke just shrugged. They ended up having dinner their, and Naruto walked Hinata home disguised with Henge. (Hinata knew that Hiashi still wouldn't approve of the friendship...Naruto went disguised as Sasuke more often than not as Hiashi had encouraged Hinata to interact with the Uchiha.)

"Goodnight Hinata-chan!" He said, waving vigorously at her.

"Oyasumi nasai Naruto-kun."

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"Yea! Go Hinata-chan! Kick Sasuke-teme's ass!" Naruto shouted.

Hinata shifted her weight slightly and bent backwards to avoid a round house to the head and quickly closed a tenketsu in Sasuke's leg. He grimaced and jumped back, shaking his leg to rid it of the shocks. She didn't give him enough time to recover and ran towards him quickly, getting ready to send a double-palm strike to his arms. He blocked one, but the other connected. His left arm hung next to him, unable to channel chakra for the moment.

He jumped back again and sighed, "Alright Hinata-chan, I give up for today. You win, now fix my arm!"

Hinata smiled at him, then laughed when he glared half-heartedly at her. "Hai, Sasuke-kun."

When his arm was functional again, Hinata announced that they would be practicing medical jutsu again. As soon as Sasuke heard that, he made an excuse about having to pick Hebi up from a babysitter. Hinata pointed out that Hebi had no babysitter and Sasuke just shrugged and ran.

Naruto chuckled, "He really doesn't like to practice our med-jutsu, ne Hinata-chan. I don't know why, it's fun!"

"He's more interested in learning how to defeat...him. You know that, Naruto-kun."

"Hai, hai. I know, but that doesn't mean he can't try something else for once!" He said as he stretched out on the grass.

Hinata hummed in agreement and stretched out next to him.

"Naruto-kun, do you think you'll pass the exam tomorrow?" Hinata asked.

Naruto was silent for awhile.

"I don't know Hinata-chan. I will so long as they don't make me try a Bushin because we both know how that goes. Maybe they'll use Kawarimi this year?"

Hinata shook her head sadly at him. The final exam was always a Bushin. Testament to this fact was the other two exams that Naruto had failed. He had discovered that you could take the test up to two years early if you really wanted to so long as you got permission from your guardian. Since Naruto technically didn't have a guardian, he'd signed the permission form himself. Hinata had known that the final tests would be on Bushin and so hadn't bothered to ask Hiashi. Not only was he more likely to scoff and then scold her for asking, but she didn't want to pass without Naruto if Hiashi did happen to say yes.

"Naruto...you know the final test is always on Bushin..."

Naruto sighed and nodded sadly.

"I know Hinata-chan. I'm just trying to be optimistic, ne?"

Hinata sat up and shrugged, brushing grass off of her as she talked.

"You never know Naruto-kun, perhaps there is an alternate way to pass?"

"Maybe." Naruto mumbled, then he shook himself. "Aren't we supposed to be practicing medical jutsu? Let's get to it!"

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That morning, early-birds had woken to find graffiti covering the Hokage monument. No one knew who had done it, except for Sandaime but he found it too amusing to say anything. It was the morning of the Academy tests. Hinata knew that Naruto had done it because he was worried over the outcome. Iruka walked right into a piece of clear plastic with a sticky substance on it when he entered the Academy. He had no way to prove that it was a student either as other Academy Instructors had been known to play pranks on testing days as a way of lightening the mood for the students.

As Hinata exited the exam room with a shiny new hitai-ate, she frowned and shook her head to Naruto who slumped in his seat. A short time later, Sasuke exited with a leaf forehead protector as well.

"Uzumaki, Naruto!"

Naruto reluctantly rose from his seat and slunk across the room. He slowly pushed the door open and then closed it, then stood awkwardly in front of Iruka and Mizuki.

"First I want you to throw ten shuriken and ten kunai at the target across the room." Iruka said promptly.

Naruto did so and managed to end with a cluster of kunai and shuriken in the center of the board. Iruka made a note on his clipboard.

"Next, I want to see a Henge. And not that despicable jutsu you created either. A real Henge of anyone you want."

Naruto formed the seals and molded the chakra, one puff of smoke later and there stood a female Naruto...fully clothed. She winked, smirked, and blew a kiss at Iruka and Mizuki before puffing back to Naruto.

Iruka grumbled before grudgingly nodding his head and making another note on the clipboard.

"Finally, we want to see three fully functional Bushin." Mizuki finished for Iruka.

Naruto cringed.

"Ano...Iruka-sensei...I..." He was cut off by Iruka.

"Naruto, you have to do this to pass."

"...Hai."

He took a deep breath and carefully formed the seals. He could already feel the chakra being suppressed but continued none-the-less. One poof later and there were four dead looking zombie-Naruto clones lying on the ground pathetically.

Mizuki winced.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but you fail this portion."

Naruto just slumped forward and sighed. "Hai."

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"Naruto-kun...I'm so sorry." Hinata said to him quietly.

"Ne...it's okay Hinata-chan!" He said, pasting a grin onto his face, "I'm happy you passed. Where did Sasuke-teme go?"

"He went home. I don't know why, I would think he'd want to celebrate this with us...oh, I'm so sorry Naruto-kun!"

Hinata threw her arms around him as he sat dejectedly on the single swing.

"It's okay, really. I just want to be alone right now..."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hai."

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Mizuki watched the exchange between the two friends. He was relieved that the demon child had failed the test. He'd been worried for a while that the dead-last would pass the test on par with the Uchiha. That brought some questions to mind, how had the fox brat gotten so good seemingly over night? Had he been holding back in the Academy? It didn't matter...he had failed and now Mizuki had his pawn.

"Oi, Naruto-kun. I know of another way you could pass the test...you could maybe even be on the same team as your two friends. Hinata and Sasuke, right?"

Naruto perked up immediately, "I'm listening..."

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A dark figure moved through the halls of the Hokage tower.

'A large, important looking scroll, ne? Sounds kinda fishy...especially me having to steal it in the dead of night and all...' Naruto thought to himself.

"Naruto...what are you doing in this room?" The voice of the Hokage said quietly.

Naruto 'eeped' and quickly used his Oiroke no Jutsu to incapacitate the old man. (He'd found a pile of dirty books in one of his desk drawers when he was younger, so he knew it would work on Sandaime.)

As the Hokage was propelled backwards due to the force of his nose-bleed, Naruto made his way towards a scroll that fit the description he'd been given. He hefted the thing onto his back and whispered a quiet 'Sorry Old Man'.

His target acquired, Naruto ran off towards the forest as swiftly and silently as possible.

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I was going to add another scene for the forest encounter, but I have school in the morning and would like to go to bed. I think 2.5k in words is good enough for tonight. I hope to have another chapter written by the weekend but we'll see how that goes. Only three weeks of school left! Yay!

Review please? It's not hard...all you have to do is push that beautiful lavender button.

NOTE: This is an unedited version of this chapter. It may or may not be replaced by a better version at a later date.