A/N: Alright, as I promised, since you people have been reviewing and taking time out of your life to read my story, I'll throw chapters out faster. See, I keep my promises :)
I don't own Naruto, yada yada yada; let's get going with the story.
"Hinata! Hinata!" The young girl heard someone yell.
Hinata Hyugga slowly woke up as Naruto shook her by the shoulders.
"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed as she slowly opened her eyes. "You slept like a bear!"
Hinata moaned as she slowly picked herself up, her legs aching. She wanted to go back to sleep really bad, but Naruto was the boss, the thought making her laugh in her mind. Her life was going to be so much different now. Naruto helped her get up as the two exited the tent, making Hinata see that it was barely dawn. The sky had an orange tint to it and made the sky look really beautiful. Hinata yawned and stretched as Naruto packed up, making sure to leave no evidence of his being there. Hinata was really tired.
Almost as if reading her mind, Naruto looked at her. "Here have this, it should keep you awake." He said passing her a small and red container containing some liquid.
Hinata looked at it. It was in the form of a cylinder and the top came off. She slowly took it out, revealing a white-ish liquid inside which smelled bad. She slowly picked it up to her lips as she let it run down the throat, tasting it, but quickly spit it out as it tasted repugnant. Naruto only laughed at she tried to get rid of the taste completely.
"You have to drink at least half of that thing if you want to stay alert." Naruto said after he had finished packing. "Otherwise, you'll be walking asleep."
Hinata looked at Naruto once more before putting it once more to her lips, drinking the bitter drink until she had finally drunk half of it. She gasped for air, trying to ignore the horrible flavor.
"You'll get used to the flavor." Naruto said, laughing a little. "We should get going; we have a long day of walking ahead of us."
Naruto led the way out of the forest and into the road that would take the two to Sunagakure. The two walked side by side, without a word, although it wasn't exactly an awkward silence because Hinata loved the sounds of birds chirping and other animal sounds. Before Hinata knew it, the sun was already up, rising only a tiny bit above the horizon. It looked so nice.
"Ok, here we are." Naruto said as the two exited the forest and came out unto a road.
It was narrow and peach-colored, with some rocks stuck inside it.
"This road leads to the village hidden in the sand." Naruto cheerfully said.
"N-Naruto?" It had been the first time Hinata had talked in the whole morning. Although Hinata was going to be hanging around with him, she was still quite shy.
"Hmm?" Naruto asked, looking at her.
"W-Why are y-you going t-to a v-village if you're l-looked for?" She finally asked. Why was she stuttering was a better question.
"I hoped you would ask that." Naruto said. "I'm looked for throughout the land of fire, not the land of wind." He explained as Hinata understood. "Much less Sunagakure. The village's current Kazekage and I go way back."
"Oh…" Hinata said as the two walked down the peach road.
By now the sun had already completely separated from the horizon as it made the sky a clear blue with a few clouds. It was starting to get somewhat chilly as well. The wind blew as the two kept on walking for two more hours until they had finally stopped.
"Here, we'll take a break." Naruto said. Hinata's legs already hurt, but she had refused to complain while Naruto felt fine.
Hinata sighed as she sat down on the soft grass while Naruto sat next to her, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. Suddenly, Hinata's stomach rumbled as it begged for food. Naruto only looked at her, finding it a bit fastidious. He wouldn't have a problem about eating, but he only had two food scrolls left and he wasn't sure if it could last them the whole trip. But he did it anyways, sighing as he took out his scroll and unveiled a complete meal for both of them in a puff of white smoke. It contained all kinds of food, varying from sushi, to rice balls and ramen.
"Well dig in!" Naruto said as he grabbed some chopsticks and a bowl. "The food won't disappear by itself, now will it?"
Hinata couldn't believe what she was seeing. She had never seen so much food at once!
She slowly grabbed some chopsticks and a bowl, and started to choose what she wanted. Back at her home she used to only be able to eat what her father told her she was allowed to eat, which usually contained vegetables and other healthy food.
Naruto only looked at her. "You're eating this as if you had never eaten this kind of food before." He said, biting on some ramen.
"T-That's b-because I haven't." Hinata softly said. It was true.
"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "Is that even possible? Sheesh, the horror you must have lived! That had to be hell and a half!"
Hinata only laughed a little. Her life had been hell and a half, but not because of food.
Naruto snickered as he grabbed some rice balls, not bothering to restrain himself from overindulging. After all, he had a long day ahead of him. However the same story wasn't for Hinata, who cautiously chose what she wanted. Naruto looked at her, raising an eyebrow before sighing once more.
"She's so weird…" Naruto thought.
"You can choose whatever you want you know?" Naruto said.
"I k-know, I've j-just never e-eaten this k-kind of food… It a-all looks k-kind of w-weird" Hinata said, slowly bringing some food to her mouth.
"Great, I'm basically going to have to teach her how to eat." Naruto said, sighing and putting one hand on his head. "Talking about teaching her…"
"I'm done." Naruto said, putting his bowl back down. The fact was that he was still hungry, but there was something he needed to see…
After what seemed like an eternity to Naruto, Hinata finally finished, satisfied. Naruto packed everything up again before standing up, having a grin on his face.
"Alright Hinata, I want to see what you've got." Naruto said, crossing his arms and making his grin even bigger.
"P-Pardon?" Hinata asked, confused by what Naruto meant.
"I wanna see how strong you are!" Naruto exclaimed, now smiling.
Hinata froze. She hated sparring, mostly because she was bad when it came to fighting and because she hated fighting altogether. But she didn't really have a choice, he seemed really eager to know her abilities, although she knew she'd disappoint him, getting a little sad at the thought. But she just nodded and stood up.
"Don't bother holding back alright?" Naruto said as Hinata nodded. She knew, no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't be able to even come close to a match to him.
Naruto threw his ninjato on the floor. He was going to try and rely on his taijutsu alone as to be fair with her. She got into the "gentle fist" stance and activated her Byakugan, making veins draw towards her eyes, now being able to see his chakra flow as she added chakra to her palms.
"The gentle fist huh? I've heard about that, they just need to graze you for it to hurt. I better be careful." Naruto thought, already trying to make a strategy.
"You can make the first move." Naruto said, taking off his cloak as his black and orange jumpsuit came into view.
Hinata nodded, somewhat nervous. She knew Naruto said not to hold back, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to do that. She had never liked hurting people.
Hinata ran at Naruto, doing a twirl before aiming at his chest, easily missing as Naruto stepped aside and softly put his palm to her rib-side.
"Dead." Naruto said, chuckling a bit. "If this were a real fight, you'd be dead by now, never let your guard down." He said as Hinata nodded and looked at him. Usually she had been corrected by yells and loud scolding. "Let's start again."
He jumped a few feet away from her as Hinata adjusted her pose once more. She ran at him once more, trying to see through his movement. She pretended an attack as Naruto moved out of the way, executing her actual offence on him as he dodged. She didn't miss, but instead was blocked by Naruto's arm as he grabbed her wrist and moved it away from his chest. Hinata used her other hand and aimed at his chest once more as Naruto saw through it and grabbed her wrist once more before jumping back.
"You need to be faster, don't let me catch your attack." Naruto said.
"A-Alright." Hinata said, putting his advice into her head, planning to apply it to her next attack.
Naruto only looked at Hinata. "I can tell you don't like fighting, but if you're going to stick around there will be many times when you'll have to rely on your combat skills." Naruto said as Hinata looked at him. "This time, I want you to attack me with all that you have; I don't want you holding back this time."
"B-But I wasn't h-holding back…" Hinata softly said.
"I know you can do better." Naruto said, getting a tad-bit annoyed at her lack of self-confidence. "You just don't believe you can. Believe in yourself, Hinata."
No one had ever spoken to Hinata that way. She'd always be scolded on how she was worthless and how she wasn't fit to be a Hyugga, unlike her sister. But it seemed that Naruto didn't take that same way of treatment, it seemed that Naruto believed in the power that lies within people, instead of just focusing on raw power.
"Believe in myself…" Hinata repeated in her mind before getting in her stance once more and putting a face of determination on.
Naruto smiled as he saw that his partner was now starting to actually use her capabilities. Hinata ran at Naruto as fast as she could, before jumping to the right and attacking. Naruto blocked it, but wasn't able to catch and counter-attack her, as she used her other arm to attack. He blocked that one too, but wasn't able to catch it either, her pace fastening as she attacked with each arm one after the other, and it made it harder each time for Naruto to avoid her deadly palms. Even Hinata herself couldn't believe the way she was fighting. She eventually attacked relentlessly, one palm after the other and Naruto was actually starting to have a hard time blocking her. Suddenly she aimed at his neck, coming as a surprise for Naruto as he quickly blocked it with his arm that was injured from the previous day.
The sudden act made Naruto's arm injury have a sudden but great spasm as pain, distracting him as he groaned, leaving his guard down, much to Hinata's favor, as she saw the opening in his guard.
"Here!" She said, already launching her palm forward.
"Crap!" Naruto said waiting for the blow, knowing there was no way for him to block that one.
And sure enough he was right, as Hinata's palm dug into his stomach area, lurching him back for a millisecond before pushing him back as he floated in the air for a second and then fell down hard on the ground, his stomach registering pain. Hinata stood still, panting and waiting for Naruto's response, expecting a scolding of some kind. But instead Naruto got up, laughing and holding his stomach –which hurt- as he looked at her.
"Wow that was really good for your first sparring with me!" Naruto congratulated her. "You're pretty strong! You just need some refining, but trust me, you have so much potential!" He exclaimed.
Hinata smiled brightly. She had never really been complimented for the outcome of her fighting, and especially not to this extent. The sun beat down on both of them, making them sweat more than they were already. Naruto laughed a little bit more before plopping down on the grass, knowing his stomach would have a bruise later on. Seeing it as a "go" sign, Hinata sat down, completely tired.
She was really ecstatic. For once in her life, she was proud of herself.
"I told you! If you believe in yourself, your possibilities are endless, so don't lack self-confidence." He said, sitting up and winking at her.
Hinata only blushed a bit, looked at the ground, and nodded. Suddenly, Naruto's stomach rumbled, but Hinata didn't notice it.
"Not now Uzumaki, not now." A voice inside of Naruto's head said, as he nodded in approvance. He didn't have any food to spare; he'd have to rationalize it wisely, in contrast to just stuffing his face whenever he felt like it.
He sighed as the two sat down for a few more minutes.
"Alright, we better get going." Naruto said standing up and picking up his cloak from the floor, putting it on. After all it was getting a bit chilly.
Hinata nodded and did the same as the two walked down the peach road once more.
"Now, you aren't going to be able to survive just by the gentle fist ya' know?" Naruto said, looking ahead of him.
Hinata looked at him, not catching his flow.
"What I mean is, since you're traveling with me, over the time people will notice that you're my partner. Therefore they will analyze your techniques as well. So you have to give them something else to think about, not just the gentle fist." Naruto explained.
Hinata looked down at the road, somewhat troubled. All the techniques besides the gentle fist were pretty difficult, and she had never been able to do them correctly.
As if reading her mind, Naruto kept going. "And I'm not talking about the Hyugga's techniques." He continued as Hinata looked at him, surprised. "What I mean is developing your own techniques." He said.
"B-But how d-do I do t-that?" She asked.
"Easy, I can lead you through that part, but first you have to base your techniques on a foundation. Your foundation should be a part of fighting that you're good at, and I think I already know which one you're great at." Naruto said.
"W-Which one?"
"Chakra control." He said. "I could easily tell that your chakra control was above normal. That's a great basis for a technique; with that kind of base your possibilities will be endless!" He exclaimed. "But let's not get hasty here. First you'll have to master your gentle fist before doing other stuff."
"Oh y-yeah right…" She said.
The two didn't talk much as the day went on; spare a few conversations of small-talk, but nothing interesting, and the two started to slow their pace when the sun came down. After a while the tent was already up.
Naruto had gathered some logs already, as he added some chakra to the piled logs, instantly incinerating them.
"Ah, much better." Naruto said as the heat warmed him through the cold night. "You should probably get close to the fire Hinata!" He yelled after her as she was in the tent.
"A-Alright." She murmured as she came out, instantly running to the fire. She was cold, and she wasn't used to it.
Naruto only looked at her for a few seconds. "You know, for a girl who's been pampered her whole life, you're pretty tough." He said, looking back at the fire.
Hinata looked at him, not sure if it was a compliment or otherwise. She then saw the fire dance in his blue eyes, mixing with the blue. She just stared into them as Naruto looked at the fire, unaware. But she had to break her gaze as she suddenly got tired. Her eyes were already half-closed and it seemed Naruto noticed it.
"Go get some shut-eye, tomorrow will be like today, so you need all the sleep you can get." Naruto said, tending to the fire.
Hinata mentally agreed and went into the tent, before plopping down on the small and flat bed that was in it, quickly pulling her think blanket over her before trailing off to sleep.
A/N: So anyways, I just wanted to apologize for bringing the chapter in so late, I had some major stuff going on this week and I had to push my stories aside for a while. Anyways, please review and I hope to hear your feedback.
-Sky