Chapter V

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The next morning, Oscar crawled trough the tiny door in the wall, trying not to lean on his left hand, which he had wrapped up after Tora had bitten him. He found that he preferred the tiny door to the ones in the hall, for some reason. He sat up and watched his friend calmly.

Naruto was being indecisive once again. He had never had a problem with his own choice of clothes in the past, but that was when it was Sakura whose good side he had wanted to be on. Though not quite as hideous as his own orange jumpsuit, Sakura's red dress and pink hair gave a no less flamboyant display. Now that Naruto actually came to think about his own clothes, he was sure that it was time for a change. The trouble was, he didn't have any alternate choices.

Oscar wondered whether to just lend Naruto some clothes for now, but then he realized that, being shorter, his own clothes might not fit his friend very well. Finally, he gave voice to an idea that he had been cultivating for the last minute or so. "Naruto. Why don't you just wear the jumpsuit for today, and go shopping with Ino after training."

Naruto frowned. "Why should I go with Ino?"

"Because the girl's got sense. She would know where to go, what to get, and how much you should be paying."

Naruto conceded that Oscar's plan made sense, and left wearing his customary orange with a feeling of relief.

When Naruto arrived in the field-like training ground, he saw that he was not the first one there. Already there were Asuma, Kurenai, Jaitan (both of him), Choji, Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Shino. As Naruto looked around for the others, Kiba, Oscar, and Shikamaru came into view behind him. (Kakashi was not present, but no one had really expected him yet, anyway.)

When everyone except for the perpetually late Jounin had arrived, the Jaitan on the left waved for Asuma and Kurenai to stand off to one side. When they just looked confused, Jaitan on the right explained in a more relaxed tone than he had used the day before, "You two are in disgrace. You were not here to back me up yesterday, so you need to go stand over there. Make sure you can still hear me, but do not speak." Half amused and half annoyed, the two Jounin-instructors turned and walked a short distance, stopping about six feet away and facing Jaitan once more.

"Good. Now, I think it would be best if you tell me what you already know and what you're various specialties are. I already know for some of you." The one on the left nodded at Sasuke, "Fire based techniques," his eyes flicked to Naruto, "Shadow clones," for Ino, "Mind manipulation," for Shikamaru, "Strategizing and shadow possession."

"How did you know all that?"

Jaitan on the left waved a dismissive hand. "Never mind that. Am I right in thinking that you all know your basic three?" everyone gave murmurs of assent, except for Naruto, who shuffled his feet and stared at the grass. Jaitan pretended not to see. "So, to start off with, why not do some chakra control exercises. You can all float leaves, right? But only one at a time and only over your head. I want you to start with that, but also work on channeling chakra through other parts of your body and keeping the leaf there. Then, when you have that down, work on floating more than one leaf above each body part. Then float multiple leaves over multiple parts of you body at the same time. That ought to be enough to start with for now. When you are proficient in all of these things and have proved it to me, I have another couple of exercises for you. I'll go around and talk to each of you separately to get a better idea of your skills, for now."

All of the genin nodded and moved off to find leaves and a secluded spot to work. Naruto made to move off with the others, but Jaitan on the right, who was nearest, took hold of Naruto's arm before he could move. "What?" he asked.

"I know you can make shadow clones, so I want you to make as many as you are able without feeling the drain and set half of them doing the leaf exercises. You yourself, along with the other half, will practice forming normal clones.

"What? Why?" Naruto was not looking forward to his new sensei learning of his inability to form a decent clone.

"Because, while you're ability to form shadow clones is a huge benefit, both on the battle field and for training purposes, knowing how to make normal intangible clones could only do good to your fighting style. Make your shadow clones and get to work while I check on some of the others." The Jaitan on the right, who had not said a word, released Naruto's arm and went off with the other one to check on Hinata, who was having no trouble already floating two leaves above her right palm.

After an hour and a half, Naruto had nearly mastered the leaf-floating exercises they had been set and had produced and dispelled, with the help of his shadow clones, a total of 1,217 imperfect normal clones and 16 nearly perfect clones. It was at that time that Jaitan saw fit to call a halt and to gather everyone around him, Asuma and Kurenai once again being made to stand well back.

"I see definite improvement already," Jaitan on the right informed them. "I think that most of you would be ready to start the harder set of exercises if I have not already cleared you to do so. I suggest that we break for now and return in half an hour, give or take. Once we get back, you can resume the chakra control exercises for another twenty minutes or so before we switch to the other subject for today."

As they disbanded, Naruto's eyes were drawn to the Hyuuga clan heiress, looking unusually happy. Apparently, she had been pleased by a remark that Jaitan had made about her chakra control and manipulation. Though she had been inclined to protest that her abilities were nothing special, Jaitan-sensei had headed her off by suggesting that she move on to the next set already, much sooner than any of her peers were progressing.

Naruto wasn't sure why, but he discovered that he liked seeing Hinata happy, and he unconsciously resolved to aid in bringing happiness to the girl. Not in a big way, just a comment here or a smile there.

Once they had regrouped and worked for a while on the leaf exercises, Jaitan announced the new topic- taijutsu. He began with matching them with sparing partners to get an idea of their current skills in that department. It came out that the only people with a modicum of skill at sparing were Sasuke, Oscar and Hinata, while everyone else clustered dismally at the bottom of the list. Oscar wasn't even particularly good, he just happened to get lucky and be paired with Shikamaru. Unable to use his shadow-possession technique and unable also to get any room to think, the lazy Nara was forced to dodge and block the entire time without getting any time to launch a counter-attack. In short, Oscar owed his victory as much as to his opponent's ineptitude as to his own speed and flexibility. Hinata had the edge over Sakura with her clan's jyuken training, but was nowhere near as proficient as her cousin Neji, not having been trained with the same intensity. Sasuke's fighting style consisted mainly of head-on attacks without conserving energy, and consequently tired him out before tiring out Kiba. The only reason Sasuke won was because he constantly kept Kiba on the defense and managed to land a few heavy blows that brought Kiba to his knees.

As Jaitan remarked, none of these would do in a proper taijutsu fight, so he set to work giving advice and suggesting styles of fighting and assigning all of them various exercises that would help to strengthen them and increase their flexibility.

As for Naruto, he was told to make another eight hundred or so clones, set two-thirds of them to keep practicing chakra control, and the rest to practice sparring.

After three hours of everyone training hard, Jaitan called it a day and announced, "Be back here tomorrow at the same time. We'll start with chakra control again and if I think you're ready, I'll start teaching you to boost your jumps and strikes with chakra. Agreed?" Of course everyone agreed.

As he was leaving, Naruto remembered the advice that Oscar had given him that morning. He caught up with Ino as she left the training ground. "Oi! Ino! Do you have a minute?" Ino turned to face him.

"Sure," she said. "What do you need?"

"Well, I was thinking of going shopping today- for clothes. You know. And I was wondering if you could come with me 'cause you've got more experience…" he trailed off awkwardly.

Ino looked at him appraisingly. "Finally got sick of orange?" Naruto nodded fervently. "Alright, then. I'm free now. You want to go?" Naruto did want to go. The sooner he could ditch the jumpsuit the better.

Naruto returned to his apartment building several hours later laden with clothes, all of them practical and good-looking. He went upstairs to change immediately and to hang up the new clothes in the closet.

After listening to the incessant rustlings of shopping bags from the next room for almost half an hour, Oscar finally galvanized himself enough to get up from where he was sitting and doodling and see what all the fuss was about. He raised his eyebrows and smiled when he saw Naruto tying his headband back on and dressed in a black shirt and tan cargo pants. It suited him far better than the jumpsuits ever had. Oscar gave a low whistle.

Naruto whirled around, fingers fumbling to strap on his old kunai pouch. When he saw his friend, his shoulders slumped in relief. Then he looked annoyed. "Oh damn. You've just reminded me what I forgot to get today."

"What was it?"

"A lock for this side of that little door."

Oscar pouted. "Mean. I just came to ask you to stop rustling those log-damn bags. I can hear it even through the walls." As Naruto nodded and opened his mouth to say he would stop in a minute, the shorter boy happened to feel a draft. He looked over to see the window open. Oscar's eyes went wide and he scrambled across the floor to bang the window shut. "Are you crazy?" he hissed, "You almost let all of the buzzards out! I've been cultivating those seaweed plants for months! What were you thinking?"

Naruto had long ago given up trying to understand Oscar when he was in this mood, so he just shrugged. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking straight."

"I'll say you weren't," Oscar said. "Huh! As if I'd ever knit a scarf for you. All of my wires go to the hungry cats, don't ask me what they do with them. I think they make them out of dust bunnies. I mean, have you ever considered the true effects of a high tide on the minds of alligators? All those suitcases. It's very unhealthy." Oscar froze, mid-ramble. "I need to go annoy someone else. I think I'll go find Shikamaru." And with that, he stood up and left the room via the door to the hall.

Naruto stood very still, wondering whether to let out a really piercing yell, but finally decided against it. But perhaps he would go and set a prank on the ANBU. They were well overdue for another one. Perhaps if he filled their spare kunai pouches with glue instead of knives… Naruto stopped. No, that was a prank for another day. Though today was almost over, he felt that what he needed more than being chased through the streets of Konoha by hordes of angry high-level shinobi was the company of other humans. He toyed with the idea of seeking out Kiba before deciding against it. Though they may on occasion have a civil conversation, the Inuzuka's alpha mentality went at odds with Naruto's own leadership tendencies. Naruto needed someone a little quieter to talk to just now, someone whom he would not have to compete with to get a word in edgewise. As he reviewed his options, an idea crept softly into his mind. He hadn't gotten to speak to Hinata at all during training that day, so perhaps he could do that now. But what would he talk about? At that, his planning skills gave out. I'm sure I'll think of something.

Naruto finally found Hinata sitting on a park bench all by herself. She was absentmindedly feeding the pigeons, thinking hard about something else, a frown on her face. At the sight of that face, Naruto's mind stalled. He was suddenly very aware of what a beautiful person he had chosen to talk to while as the same time, horribly aware that he had nothing to talk about. Maybe he could talk about training...

At that moment, Hinata swung her head, eyes following a white pigeon, and spotted Naruto watching her. She gave a little "Eep!" went bright red and scattered far too much seed so that she was instantly swamped in jostling wings and feathers. She dropped her eyes in a very endearing way. "H-hello N-naruto-kun. I D-didn't n-notice you s-standing there." Naruto somehow knew that if she were not clutching the bag of seed, her fingertips would be pressed together. He took the initiative and walked over to her, wading through pigeons, and sat down.

She turned her face away from his, biting her lip, though she was positively glowing on the inside.

They didn't say anything until Hinata, despising herself as soon as she did, broke the silence. "I-is there s-something th-that you n-needed, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto didn't speak for a moment, causing Hinata's heart to give a little jolt. Then he turned and gave her a quiet smile. She noticed for the first time that he was wearing black instead of orange. Unusual, but it could only be seen as an improvement. "I just wanted to talk to you," Naruto said. "But I seem to have forgotten what to say. Why don't you start? Tell me about your life."

"You d-don't r-really w-want to hear-" Hinata stopped, feeling as if her contradiction would drive him away. When he did nothing but perhaps lean in a little closer to hear her quiet voice, she decided that perhaps he did want to know. Voice stammering and wobbling with shock, she proceeded to spill her life story into his lap. He watched her fondly, noting how her stutter seemed to improve the longer she talked. Hinata couldn't help it, but she began to cry a little as she spoke, mortified in case he should think her a baby. But Naruto thought no such thing. As she began to go into detail about the aftermath of her kidnapping, about how her cousin had hated her and how the elders had shunned her and how her father had lavished all of his affection and advice on her sister, she discovered that the blonde boy had been edging slowly toward her along the bench. And then he put his arms around her, still listening sympathetically and not interrupting. It was too much for Hinata. As she finished her story, the tears poured faster and she sobbed and gasped, not talking, the bird seed lying forgotten on the grass. She put her hands to her wet face and leaned against the boy who was rocking her gently, making soothing noises and telling her that she would be alright. And she knew that everything would be alright, and she tried to tell him so, because she now had the only thing she had ever wanted. Eventually, the flow of tears eased and the only remainders were the shudders that wracked her body. And still he held her.

Naruto was sure that he could never put his feelings into words. His hatred for the people who had tortured this beautiful girl and did not deserve to have her. But his harsh feelings took a back seat just now to the gentleness and love that he needed to give her. It was a truly unique feeling, the feel of her, the smell of her hair and the feelings of confusion and mistreatment and contentment that seeped from under the hands that still covered her face. He knew that he should leave soon, but he also knew that he was needed here more than he was needed anywhere else in the world. It was such a fragile thing, that when he tried to take his arms from around her to take hold of her hands, she gasped and held his arms in place around her. He rested his head on top of hers and she buried her face in his shoulder. He did not leave her until it began to get dark and she sighed that her father's people would begin to look for her soon. Naruto was not willing to release her back into the care of her family, but knew that, for the time being at least, there was no alternative.

A/N: I'm not sure what needs to be said after that. I never expected to write a scene like that one at all, but I'm glad I did. If you absolutely lovelovelove NaruHina, please review.