Author Notes: Author response to QueenofStars91 who wrote:
Good story! Does Naruto still have the nine-tails in him? :3 Will we ever see the gang in their partII form? It would be so cool if Naruto goes on his two year journey and comes back and sees Hinata. :3
Yes, Naruto is still the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko
Yes, I am currently planning on this extending to Shippuden.
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Naruto Sempai: Chapter 5 – What it means to be Strong!
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The yellow blur she was fighting swooped in on her left, coming in for an attack. Throwing her arms up in a hasty defence, she was barely able to fend it off. She threw out a jab at his kidney, but he quickly bent around her hand and came around to her side. Causing her to leap back to put him back in front of her. Byakugan activated, she watched him like a hawk watching a rabbit. She waited patiently for a hole in his defence that she could exploit. So far, he'd been jus what she would expect from a chuunin...Flawless in his attacks, and using his superior speed to move in, attack, and retreat before she could get a good, solid attack on him. Yes, patience was the key.
He attacked again, and Hinata darted back to avoid a fist. She ducked as Naruto kept coming towards her, throwing a spinning kick at her head. Seizing the opportunity she struck him in the base of the spine with her juuken.
Poof
Naruto grinned, and clapped for her slowly, clearly satisfied with her progress over the past few weeks.
She had gone from being demolished by a single clone, to being able to take one out every night without fail, sometimes even two or three. Naruto had to withdraw his offer of a question every time she defeated one.
"Very good Hinata" he said proudly. She smiled at his acknowledgement, with a warm glow in her chest of her feeling good about herself too.
"Thank you, Naruto-sempai" she thanking bowing slightly. No matter how often she did it, Naruto didn't think he'd ever get used to it.
"No need to bow, you always do it…" he murmured
"You a-always tell me not to. But it's hard" she replied. Naruto gave her a look
"It's hard not to bow?" he questioned disbelievingly. Hinata smiled at him.
"It's hard not to show my appreciation" she corrected. Naruto sighed, letting it slide, how could he say anything against that?
"Cheater" he murmured, clearing his throat.
"You're starting to come a little into your own now," he said, glancing up at the sky, "You have been ever since you switched to using juuken, actually. It makes sense given that it's your heritage after all." He said, folding his arms in thought "As we've discussed previously, your strengths are your chakra control and your flexibility. Your weakness being your physical strength. However, juuken doesn't rely on strength, so it really doesn't matter that much. Your chakra control and flexibility will naturally compliment your juuken by simply giving you greater opportunities to hit and a greater endurance due to efficiency. BUT! Given our objective; I want to push you on your flexibility with a slight raise in speed training." He finished, finally stopping for a breath.
Hinata nodded to his every point. Ever since she had begun training against his clones, however painful at times, she felt much more motivated whenever he spoke to her about training or advancement, as she knew it would now be up to her to push for it.
"Speed training will be simple, though time-consuming." He said with a smile "Flexibility will be… more interesting." He said with some consideration. "But, don't worry about it for now. Tonight we'll finish up with one more clone, and then we'll call it a night. It's getting late now, anyway" he said, another clone popping into existence next to him.
Hinata took her stance as the clone charged. Taking her time, she dodged whenever able, blocking otherwise, and occasionally tried to counter attack.
Naruto smiled as he observed the spar. Hinata's confidence was what he was truly aiming to raise in this training, and it had the added bonus of being much more exciting than the river training. He was convinced she had the ability. He knew she did after their first mini-spar. But he had to draw it out so that she knew it as well. That was hard enough, even when dealing with people who were confident in themselves. But when the person was timid, it was quite difficult indeed. Every clone she defeated would bring her a step towards the right direction. The only obstacle of major concern now was transferring her from clones to real bodies.
She got struck down by the clone, and Naruto winced ever so slightly, but his smile returned when she pulled herself back up.
He had a grand total of eleven weeks before the final exam. One week before the second of three pre-tests. Ideally he would like her to be performing highly in taijutsu by then, but given she was only used to fighting clones he couldn't be certain of how her performance will go.
Poof
The clone was destroyed. Naruto smiled, that was much faster than usual.
"Good work Hinata, you're coming a long way" he said encouragingly. He could see her trying to suppress a proud grin, and decided to egg it on "I mean it, defeating the clones of an experienced chuunin, and you're still at the academy. Even I can't make such a claim!" he said giving her a pat on the back. He saw her smile creep ever so slightly larger, and grinned to himself. So long as he could keep that up, she would stance a chance of beating the Uchiha.
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As Hinata sat at her desk, she was no longer thinking about how she might scrape a pass in each exam, but instead found herself going over her training in her mind. What she was doing right, what she was doing wrong and how to fix it. She occasionally even thought about Sasuke, and how good his taijutsu was. Daring to wonder the question; would she really be able to beat him?
A dozen weeks ago, it was a truly impossible dream. But lately, the boundaries of the possible and impossible seemed to be shattering. She had literally felt herself become just a little bit stronger, just a little bit faster. Her reactions more instinctive, even if it only bought her a millisecond of time, it was a millisecond she didn't have before!
She let her eyes fall slowly to her desk. At lest she was able to feel herself growing stronger. If, after all was said and done, she was still unable to beat Sasuke...it wouldn't really bother her. She'd grown stronger, and that was all that mattered.
"Today we will be doing Taijutsu" Iruka called out from the front. Hinata snapped upright. She hadn't even been listening to him, nor even aware class had begun. But that word brought her hurtling back into reality with a crash. She swallowed the stiffening knot in her throat down. She realised rapidly; she wasn't ready for this yet.
Time stops for no man...er, girl, though, and soon enough she found herself standing before Haruno Sakura. She couldn't complain about her enemy. Sakura was a middle level fighter. Hinata was some where deep deep inside her, excited about practising with Sakura. She took stance, Sakura doing the same.
After a brief pause Sakura began her strike sequence. Hinata dodged Sakura's attacks one after another. She resisted allowing a small smile to slip through in sheer delight with her own abilities.
As she went on the offensive, it became apparent that Sakura was skilled enough to block most of her attacks. Which was a good sign, if they were in a real fight, blocking would be a near-meaningless action. She saw Sakura's expression change from neutral, to a hint of anger, apparently not pleased with her own performance. Hinata bit her lip, hoping she hadn't upset Sakura.
When Sakura began to strike again, this time her attacks came much faster and harder. Hinata struggled to dodge them, and had to increasingly more so block them. She felt their power push her own defences down a little. Sakura also seemed to be much better a dodging her attacks all of a sudden.
By the time they changed partners, Hinata had been struck several times, and was feeling much less confident.
Her next opponent was Aburame Shino. The tall silent boy was a person she never really spoke with, though given his nature she knew she was hardly a special case. He kept mainly to himself, wrapped up in his overly-large coat. At first he too gave her a tough time. Whether she got used to his speed, or if he was easing up on her, she couldn't tell. But as time went on, she found him a more equal opponent. She only hoped he hadn't felt the need to ease up on her. If he did, she would likely be humiliated by the gesture.
After which they broke for lunch. Hinata sat alone, as she did most days just sitting in a slight daze as she thought about their practice. She was disappointed she wasn't doing as well as she hoped she might. But should she really expect that level of progress so soon? She didn't know what to think. Only that she felt less confident that she did this morning. Much less.
She sighed as it was time to resume the practice, having already had as much as she felt she could take. Iruka called out the next partners. She looked up at her next opponent and paled.
Uchiha Sasuke.
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Jumping from building to building, Naruto added another "Mission Complete" to his list.
It was just another mission finished to Naruto. It being finished early was a slight inconvenience, as it gave him nothing to do for the rest of the day.
He grinned as he found he had stopped at Ichiraku's ramen. He was about to obey his subconscious instincts when he checked his watch.
'Hmm, Hinata would be finishing about now' he thought to himself with a small smile. 'Why eat alone when you don't have to?´ he mentally asked rhetorically. Turning and leaping off to find the shy Hyuuga.
However when he did, it wasn't the picture he'd liked to have seen. The girl was swinging numbly on the swing in front of the academy, her face said it all. Clearly, something at the academy had gone very wrong. He leapt down, landing in front of her.
"Hey Hinata" he greeted softly, not wanting to come on too strong and put pressure on her. She looked up at him with big, sad eyes. Naruto's heart sank at the sight.
"H-Hi Naruto-Sempai" she said sadly, looking back at the floor. Naruto frowned at the sight. Did someone die? He couldn't help but wonder.
"What's wrong?" he asked as softly as he could manage. Hinata shook her head.
"N-Nothing" she stuttered out, though even she winced at how transparent her lie was.
"Hmm, okay then. Let's go and get some ramen, my treat. You can tell me all about 'nothing'" he said, with an air of insistence. He offered her his hand. She looked at it for a moment before hesitantly taking it. Naruto felt a notable lack of grip of her hand today, telling him that something really had beaten her down today. He sat her down and plopped himself next to her, and ordered for both of them. He looked at her as she looked down at the desk.
"So, what happened at the academy today?" he asked, assuming it as the most likely cause.
"J-Just t-taijutsu training" she murmured.
'Ah' Naruto thought, instantly, the pieces falling into place.
"So you trained against some pretty tough opponents then?" he asked. She nodded.
"Sasuke?" he ventured. Again she nodded.
"I see." He said, thinking of what else to say, but Hinata beat him to it.
"Th-They're really strong Naruto…" she little-more-than whispered "I th-thought I was making p-progress-" Naruto cut her off there.
"You ARE making progress, Hinata." He insisted "Sasuke is the top of your class, and from what I hear, one of the top taijutsu performers they've ever had at the academy. Anyone else… well, when faced with a superior enemy, especially one they might have thought as weak, people get angry. Which gives them speed and power, but costs them control. Now, are you telling me no one you fought today got angry?" he asked, looking at her, scanning her for the information.
Hinata twisted her lip, and shook her head.
"There you go then. Don't let one or two bad experiences get you down Hinata. You're doing great! All you need to do is have the confidence in yourself!" he said trying to re-encourage her. It seemed to have little effect however, as the food came they sat in silence, Naruto frequently looking at her as she mainly played with her food than ate it.
Halfway through his 4th bowl she turned to him. He instantly stopped eating, giving her his full attention.
"May I ask you a question?" she asked. And Naruto nodded, signalling for her to continue "Why are you training me Naruto-Sempai?" she asked, more directly than he was used to from the shy-Hyuuga. She was looking into his eyes as though the answer was written in them if only she looked hard enough. Naruto smiled at her
"That, my little Hyuuga, is a wasted question." He said with a grin. Hinata frowned slightly "I am training you for two reasons. The first is that you asked me of course!" he said as though it was the most obvious thing. Hinata was about to point out that didn't answer her question when he continued
"The second is that simply put; You're strong" he said, his smile fading, his cerulean blue eyes meeting hers with unshakable confidence. She couldn't muster the words to tell him he was wrong, not while he was looking at her like that. They sat like that for at least a minute before Hinata regained control of her voice.
"Wh-What do you mean, I-I'm strong?" she asked. Naruto grinned his foxy grin.
"Hinata, what did I tell you strong was?" he asked her. She looked away, thinking back to anything he might've said. "Or, more specifically, what did I tell you made a ninja successful?" he rephrased. Hinata looked back at him.
"G-Guts?" she half asked. Naruto nodded.
"That is the difference that defines a True Shinobi" he said solemnly "It's not about how good you are, how fast, strong, intelligent. It's the courage to get back up and keep trying. That's what real strength is!" He said, looking into her eyes with the same unshakable look as before "From the moment I met you I knew here was a person at least as strong as myself. Your eyes told me all I need to know about you Hinata. You're like me. Or at least you could be, if you wanted to be. Your actions told me you do, because you asked me for help at the first chance you got. Maybe you recognised something of yourself in me too, as I have you. I don't know. All I know is that for as long as you ask for it, I will offer you all the help I am able, because I believe in you completely. That is why I am training you" he finished. Hinata just stared at him, her face was warm, her lips were try and her body not responding. She couldn't say a word to his answer.
'Uzumaki Naruto… Who ARE you?' was all she could as much as think.
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After they had eaten Naruto had insisted on taking her to their training field. He would train the depression right out of her, that was what he would do before he allowed either of them to go home.
True to his word, Hinata was finding herself leaping, rolling and bending in all sorts of ways as she tried to avoid the attacks of two clones. Their timing was out of sync which was her only saving grace. She was barely able to hold on against them, counter-attacking at all was out of the question. She was stuck enough focusing on the two of them far too much to consider and execute some sort of counter offensive.
Naruto observed with a keen eye. The only way she would have a chance was to go offensive on one and defeat it quickly. The longer she kept this up the less stamina she would have to take out the remaining out. But he was going to leave it up to her to figure it out. There would be times when she would have to figure out the correct strategies or she would meet her end. This would serve as practice for such a time.
She leapt to the left, to dodge ones attack, putting said clone in the path of the other, who came bounding over the other. Again she leap to the left keeping them as together as possible, reducing the advantage of their numbers as greatly as she was able to. She was breathing hard, and knew that she couldn't keep this up forever. She had to think of a counter strategy quickly, or there would be no way for her to win.
The clones kept on top of her, their attacks relentless and increasing with accuracy. She wanted to strike back, but no opportunities came up. Any that she might normally have couldn't be taken advantage of due to the other. She'd never be able to land a blow without deliberately taking a direct hit, even then the chances of her blow landing seemed less than favourable. She landed from another leapt to dodge the dangerous duo.
That was when she saw it, in a single moment it was there, clear as day. She found herself jumping forward into the oncoming clones. The real Naruto leant forward in surprise and interest. The clones grinned as they swung for her. As they did Hinata instinctively twisted her body, narrowly avoiding the blows. As quickly as that had happened she shot her palms out at both of them.
Poof
She taken them out at the same time. She landed gracefully, turning to see the last remains of the smoke blow away into the wind.
Naruto stood there in shock for a moment before cheering.
"Haha!" he said running up to her and picking her up in a passionate hug. She rapidly grew scarlet "Look at you!" he said letting her go, giving her the biggest smile she'd seen yet "Warrior of the Hyuuga INDEED!" he cried, ecstatic. Hinata looked at him dizzily due to the amount of blood in her head from being hugged so intimately, as she had never been hugged like that in her memory.
Naruto was simply thrilled. He never would have guessed she could pull a move like that off. But now he knew she could he was instantly filled with a hundred different idea's on where to take her training next.
"Uchiha Sasuke" he said holding up a a hand, he clicked his fingers "Easy" he grinned. "If you can do a move like that already we might have to set out heights higher. But first, you've got to do it again" he continued in a energized rant as he produced two more clones.
Hinata smiled nervously, releasing something else about Naruto. He had a tendency to get very-carried away.
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Author Notes: That's a wrap boys and girls, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoy chocolate (not likely ^^)
Keep any Questions you have for Hinata to ask rolling if you have any.
If there are any good ones I feel I can add into the chapter I will do it =)