A/N: I finally got this up after much procrastination. :P

Ok, I have a 10 things to say before you read the chapter.

1) Super Smash Bros. Brawl rocks.

2) I am obsessed with Guitar Hero 3.

3) I will cover the whole 5 years of Naruto and Hinata's training. Why? Because I have some stuff planned for those years.(Mwahahaha!) Two of them won't even be spent within the walls of the Uzumaki.

4) Right after I post this, I am going to my Devianart page and posting some concept art for this story so be sure to check that out.

5) It is hot as hell out.

6) Finals start tomorrow. Finally, school is almost over.

7) Sasuke needs to die. Now. (Only applies to those who have read the manga up to the current chapter)

8) I can't wait for this Saturday.

9) I don't own Naruto. Just my plot and OCs.

10) Read and review please!

Chapter 12 – A Test

Zzzrrmmmm

The astral projections of eight men and a woman faded onto the fingertips of the giant statue.

The one with the grey ringed eyes spoke with a voice of authority. "Everyone, report on their bijuu."

"The one-tail is currently in Konoha." said a man with a long ponytail. "I plan to capture him as soon as he is in between there and Sunagakure."

The leader nodded approvingly. "Itachi."

"I have lost track of the jinjuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He left Konoha with a woman and a girl one week ago. The woman wore a mask to conceal her face so I could not identify her, nor were there any symbols on her clothing. All three of them have mysteriously disappeared."

"What direction were they heading in when you last saw them?"

"South, towards the Tokugawa Peninsula."

"Start looking there. Kisame, report."

"The four tails is still in earth country living in solitude, Pain-sama. I can go and retrieve him on your order when needed."

Pain nodded. "Good. What of you, Hidan?"

"I told you before motherfucker, I have no shitting idea where that fuckbag of two-tails has gone. It's still missing for ten and a half goddamn years. I can't fucking find any fucking tabs on where it might be. Heh, it might be fucking destroyed for all we know." He obviously had just enough respect for his leader not to beat him into submission.

"Do not say that, Hidan. It is out there and we will find it and use it to control its lesser demons. Look harder. Where it was last reported to be seen?

"Lightning country."

"Then start there."

"Don't you think I've already combed that fucking godforsaken place for any lead?" He threw his hands up. "I couldn't find a damn thing except for what I've already told you."

Pain's eyes hardened as did his tone. "Try harder. We must not fail."

Hinata woke to find her room dark and herself on the hard wood floor. She grasped what had happened this afternoon – or yesterday, she couldn't tell – as she stood up. She went over to her first floor window that looked over the garden. The front of the huge Uzumaki mansion faced south and there was a light blue glow on the horizon to the east.

"It must be near dawn." she murmured to herself. Hinata stretched and yawned. She remembered getting here in the middle of the afternoon, then having a five minute meeting with Myuri-san and then – she didn't want to remember the rest. Hinata fished her pajamas out of her pack, changed and set up her futon bed in order to get some proper sleep.

She lay on her side and tried not to think about anything. This side wasn't working, so she flipped to her other side. The same was with that side so she lay down on her back.

Sighing in defeat, Hinata put the bed away and settled with leaning on the windowsill and watching the sunrise.

The sun transformed the sky from a pale blue-green to a light peach and back to blue in a very slow but beautiful process. She had moved to sit on the windowsill to get a better view of it and that was how Izumi found her.

She knocked on the door lightly. "Hinata-san, it's time to wake up."

"Y-you can come in. I'm already a-awake."

The door slid open and the old woman stepped in. She had an outfit almost identical to the one Myuri had worn yesterday, except it was the same forest green as her traveling clothes. She also was not wearing her mask anymore. Hinata looked at her and saw the face for the first time. Izumi's face was the face of the woman in her fifties, even though she was over sixty. There were deep-set lines around her mouth and between her brows and crows feet about her eyes, as if she smiled a lot. She was right about the hair that now hung down; it was mostly grey.

"I wanted to – talk to you about the training." Izumi said. "You obviously saw that Myuri wasn't sure if we should train you. Well, he and I talked about it and thought about it. He told me why you shouldn't learn and such, but he also told me one way you could learn that solved all those problems.

"You see, I think you might've known this but we refused two people who came here, seeking for power for who knows what. They killed everyone except the elders, Naruto's mother and I. I was fighting to defend this place, –" her hand made a wide sweeping motion, "my home. We were all fighting as hard as we could, but I soon saw that it was useless after I saw everyone around me being killed like dogs, including my husband. I put a simple concealment jutsu about myself, masked my chakra and waited out the rest of the fight.

"The elders, including Uesugi-san, Meng-san and Myuri-sama all hid in an underground chamber. In the end, this house was almost completely destroyed though we barely survived. That man and his woman partner left, thinking that they had destroyed us all and I suppose that they are still out there somewhere, especially with that kind of power.

"Hinata, that's why Myuri is very uneasy about training you in the Kenbu-Do. He doesn't doubt your ability, I'm sure of that. He just doesn't want these skills to fall into their hands and force you to teach them. He's afraid they'll be used for destruction. He doesn't want you hurt. He doesn't know you, but he cares.

"Then there's the issue of your clan's fighting style, the Jyuuken, which your father has probably taught you. Am I correct?"

"H-Hai."

"He is also afraid that you will teach your children Kenbu-Do instead of your clan's style. He wants preservation of both styles, mainly his own." She had given the dilemma but not a solution, which Hinata kept a question for.

"I-Izumi-san, you said that there w-was a w-way that this could all work out. What w-was it?"

She gave the girl a wary look. "Do you really want to hear what it is? You may not like it." she hesitantly said.

"Hai."

Izumi sighed and closed her eyes. "The only way either of us can see that it will work out is if you become an Uzumaki. Not now, but in the future."

Hinata's normally straight eyebrows furrowed a bit in confusion. "Like a conversion?"

The woman shook her head. "No. I meant marriage."

The girl gasped and she froze. "Y-You m-mean-n…. N-Naruto…?"

"Of course him. We don't embrace the old customs where a woman marries a man who could be her grandfather. That's just not right."

Her dream had just been presented to her on a silver platter. She could become his wife. They could raise a family. They would live and grow old together. She could be his. It looked like a win-win situation.

Izumi studied the girls face. "So are you going to accept this condition and become part of the family in the future?"

Hinata said 'yes' and didn't think twice about it, about what Naruto wanted or about the consequences that she faced when she returned home five years from now.

"You're staying Hinata-chan? Awesome!" She was immediately pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

Izumi couldn't help but smile for more reasons than one. First of all, this boy had the ability to make people smile by them watching them. Second, he had no idea that the girl he was now holding would be his wife someday, whether he liked it or not. Last – the training could now begin.

"Alright you two, enough cuddling" – Hinata blushed – "for now. Both of you get ready as if you were about to go on a dangerous mission, then come out back to the training ground. We'll be waiting." She went down the hall and followed it left, disappearing out of sight.

Naruto pushed the girl out the doorway of his room. "Alright! Come on, go change! We don't have any more time to waste!"

Hinata sighed at his enthusiasm. Sure she loved and appreciated it, but sometimes he had a bit too much.

Five minutes later, they were out on the grounds. Behind them was a dojo, separate from the mansion and in the middle of the large but shallow U-shape that the two wings of the house made. Far to their right was a bathhouse with separate baths for men and women. The two remaining sides was the large white wall lined with trees and bushes, respectively.

The boy stood in the center and was bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to go. Hinata stood next to him, looking at the ground and patiently waiting for whatever was coming.

Across from them stood four adults in a line, two men and two women. There was Izumi and Myuri and the two others were the two youngest elders at the time of Pain's attack.

Each of them had a sword that ranged from a katana to an enormous one that stood as tall as the user. Izumi had a long black katana tied to the dark red sash she wore around her waist. The sheath widened about three quarters of the way down from the point, making it and odd shape for a one. The other woman had a similar sash and wore a gray gi. Her Nodachi was at least three inches wide and much longer than Izumi's. The unnamed man also wore a gray gi and a dark red sash and his sword was completely straight. From the hilt, it looked like a Jian sword about three and a quarter feet long, minus the handle.

Myuri's sword though, was the most impressive of all. This one could not fit in a sheath, even if someone tried to design one specially made for it. It was huge, even for a Tsurugi, which is the style of sword it was. Just the blade being about six feet long plus another foot and a half for the hilt and handle made it comparable to Zabuza's. The blade curved one way then the other and lastly went straight all the way to the tip.

"Naruto-san, Hinata-san, this is Uzumaki Uesugi" Myuri gestured to the man, "and Uzumaki Meng." He motioned to the other woman. "Both of them being Uzumakis, they will also be your senseis when you are being trained and you will address any of the four of us as such when training." He looked at Naruto. "Not baa-chan or baa-san. Outside of training time, you may call them that."

Izumi spoke next. "Now we have called you here with your shinobi gear because we would like to test you both to the extent of your current skills and level. Show us everything you have been taught or the skills you have acquired during missions. Naruto, you will face Myuri and Hinata, you will face me. Hinata, you and I are first."

"Go Hinata-chan! Get her like you did Neji!" Naruto cheered.

There was a bench near the edge of the wall under some trees and the two non-fighting Uzumakis went to go sit on it and watch the battle unfold. Naruto followed suit and sat, still bouncing, impatiently waiting for the outcome of this fight and for his.

Myuri stayed in the center with the two females and assigned them each a starting place that faced the other. He could tell by the look in both of their eyes that they were both ready to fight. He raised his hand so it pointed straight out in front and away from him. "Hanjuumin!" He dropped his arm and stamped his foot and backed away to the spectator's area.

Hinata went through a few hand seals. "Byakugan!"

What she saw wit her eyes was certainly confusing and something she had never seen before. In the middle of Izumi's sword in its sheath was a swirling mass of blue chakra. Although smaller, it had the same chakra signature as Izumi.

'So I guess that's what we're going to learn or something like that.' Hinata took a deep breath and was off like a shot. She threw a right punch to the woman's stomach to which Izumi merely rolled away to dodge. She went Izumi's legs next and tried to sweep them but that move too, was evaded. Roundhouse to the head, sidekick to the stomach, duck under and punch; those and others were all blocked or evaded and Izumi didn't use her sword in any of them, like she was saving it for later.

As Naruto watched, he was completely absorbed by the speed at which his family member moved. Izumi was so fast that it looked like each of Hinata's attacks was being waited for by her arm, hand or whatever body part she used to block. He was also surprised by the ferocity with which Hinata attacked. She looked as if she was trying to prove something to them.

In the meantime, Izumi was constantly evaluating the girl. 'She has good speed for her age and excellent form. She's going to easily get the Kenbu-Do down.'

Hinata retreated from her onslaught because she knew she couldn't land a hit with just the normal taijutsu taught by the academy. She brought chakra to her hands and more to her eyes to sustain her bloodline. She quickly settled into her Jyuuken stance and took an audible deep breath. The next one she took was in the heat of the battle.

Izumi noticed that her arms were beginning to slowly weaken, especially with the areas that she was blocking with though she wouldn't show it. 'This must be the Jyuuken.' She contemplated. 'It's stronger than I thought.'

As she finished that thought, Hinata decided to 'go in for the kill.' She made one more hand sign. A green glowing Ying and Yang symbol surrounded by two circles of glowing kanji appeared beneath her feet. She shifted her stance backwards and cried out "Jyuuken: Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!"

Bam. 'Two strikes! Four strikes! Eight!' Bam bam. 'Sixteen!' Bam bam bam! 'Thirty-two!' Bam! 'Sixty-four!'

But Izumi was still moving. 'That technique is supposed to make them immobile! How can she still move?' Hinata wondered. Then she took another look at the sword which was now drawn and Izumi held it out in front of her. It looked like a regular katana, up until the last three-quarter feet near the hilt. There it became a toothed with formidable spikes designed for cutting and ripping. It looked truly frightening indeed.

She tore her eyes away from the sword in order to focus back on the fight. Flowing through the handle from the central core of chakra to her hand and into her chakra system was the revitalizing chakra. It forced her keirakukei and tenketsu open, keeping them stable and keeping the flow of chakra going throughout her body.

Hinata was unsure of what to do next. Regular taijutsu was child's play and the Jyuuken was null and void with that sword….

That was it. She figured it out. She needed to separate Izumi and her sword and move in before she could recover.

This time, Hinata attacked with her regular taijutsu but with the goal of separating them in mind. This time, Izumi did use her sword, but only when evading or blocking more advanced techniques. Not once did she attack.

Finally, after about another five minutes of intense fighting, Hinata caught he blade with her left hand, though it cut her palm a bit. Ignoring this, she roundhouse kicked the hilt of the semi-toothed katana, effectively knocking it out of Izumi's grip and sending it flying. It landed twenty feet away on the ground.

Every single one of the older Uzumakis was impressed. This girl had discovered the clan's main reason for being so powerful and eliminated it in the heat of battle. Very few people ever figured out why.

"Whoa! Go Hinata!" Naruto cheered. "You almost got her!"

Now Izumi got the slightest bit serious. Hinata was coming at her with the 64 Palms again and another few strikes would render her completely immobile. She made a wide arc in the dirt with her foot to kick up a cloud of dust. She entered it at exactly the same moment Hinata did.

When it cleared, Izumi had Hinata's arm twisted up behind her back and the girl was in a sort of mid-step towards the place where her target was a second ago. Izumi threw a simple look to Myuri that neither of the teens knew what it meant.

Myuri evidently understood and stepped forward. "Yaame! Hinata-san, you have demonstrated your abilities. Now rest." He gestured to the bench. Hinata breathing hard, sat down in between Naruto and Meng, the former of whom gave a hug.

"You did awesome Hinata-chan! That was even cooler than your fight with Neji!" he said.

She blushed and smiled. "Th-thank you N-Naruto-kun"

"Naruto-san," said Izumi, "its time for your test. Please stand opposite Myuri-sama."

He walked over to an off-center spot of the dirt grounds and turned. He scrunched his face at Myuri, scrutinizing his opponent.

"But you're so OLD!"

Typical, blunt Naruto.

"You must be over 150! You're even older than Ero-Jiraya! I'm probably going to hurt you!" he continued.

Myuri sighed. 'This kid has a lot to learn.' "Have you ever heard the expression 'Don't judge a book by its cover'?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Same applies here. I'm much more fit than I seem."

Naruto shrugged. "Oh well. Your funeral."

Izumi assumed the same position Myuri had used when he initiated her fight. "Enough talking. Ready?" She looked at both males and they each gave a nod. She dropped her arm and stomped her foot. "Hanjuumin!" She backed up to the bench to watch the battle like a good spectator.

'I'm going to go easy on this guy. I don't wanna hurt him.' Naruto decided. He dropped into a stance a wrestler might assume, but Myuri didn't move and inch.

He drew a few shuriken from their holster and threw them at his opponent expertly. Myuri sidestepped them easily but didn't do anything else.

'Why doesn't he move? He hasn't made any against me!' The enemies Naruto expected to meet on future missions would always come at him, and then he'd kill or capture them as necessary. Why wasn't this one doing that now?

Naruto drew a kunai and rushed at Myuri. He faked left and did a right roundhouse to the man's chest. Myuri simply brought his right forearm up in front of him to block. When he felt his foot connect with the arm, it felt as if he had just kicked a concrete pole. He had expected to be blocked, but not one this strong from such an old man. Saving his surprise for later, he spun around in midair and brought his left leg down in an axe kick. Myuri brought his iron arm up above his head before Naruto's leg even started to come down. When it hit, he grabbed the boy's leg with his left and flung him high in the air to give Naruto enough time to land on his feet.

Meanwhile, Myuri was assessing his new student. 'Power, strength and speed, all nicely balanced….Very well for his age."

Naruto instinctively righted himself in the air. He flung the kunai he held at the man and made that hand seal he was oh-so-familiar in using. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

'And he can apparently use high ranking techniques that use a lot of chakra. Very good.'

Close to a hundred clones formed in midair and landed lightly on their feet, covering the training ground in a sea of orange and blue. Myuri, surrounded, didn't move a muscle. All the clones simultaneously charged at him, a fierce cry escaping them.

He finally moved. In one fluid motion, he raised his giant sword, turned, and brought it down in a wide arc to effectively destroy the first few clones. He wove in and out, up and between the small army as if dancing and his sword his partner.

Naruto stayed on the edge of the pack. 'Damn, he's good for an old guy! I can't get a scratch on him!' He told five clones to go in for another one of his favorite moves.

Myuri was enjoying this. Though he was about half done in eradicating the clones, he had gotten his first workout from someone outside in many years. What he did not see though, was four clones slide though the legs of the others and the next thing he knew, he heard "U! Zu! Ma! Ki!" and was flying upwards. A human shape was coming down on him.

"Naruto Rendan!"

Quickly, he brought his sword up to block the kick that would have landed square on his chest. Again, he grabbed the clone's leg and flung him into the center of the mob of his brethren with a grunt. Eight poofs resounded and eight puffs of smoke appeared. Myuri landed in the middle of it and again took up his graceful serenade.

Naruto had less than ten clones left. This wasn't going well for him. He had one last weapon in his arsenal and it was his most favorite by far. He created one last shadow clone and had it gather chakra in his right palm while he sustained it.

The strangest sound came from left and behind him. It was like something large had just been sent into another dimension. A poof sounded and Myuri heard running footsteps coming towards him as he turned in recognition and amazement. 'It can't be…'

"Rasengan!"

He saw Naruto in midair, flying towards him. In Naruto's right palm, thrust in front of his body, sat a swirling orb of blue chakra. It would have hit him square in the chest if he hadn't turned to let it pass by him at the last second. Naruto crashed into the ground, leaving a four foot crater where the Rasengan was and promptly got back up on his feet.

'Damn it! He's faster than Sasuke, hell, Kakashi-sensei!' Naruto launched a fresh wave of attacks at the ancient man with all his might, angry and aggravated that he couldn't even land a hit. With each punch and kick that failed to connect with its target, the frustration built and unconsciously wormed its way to the Kyuubi locked inside him.

Slowly, the fox's chakra began to seep through him and he began to change. His canine teeth elongated and became sharp, the whisker marks on his cheeks widened, his nails became claws and his eyes changed from a human deep blue to a feral blood red.

Myuri noticed that the look in the eyes of his opponent had changed. They were no longer determined and optimistic. They were now determined and deadly. He also noticed that Naruto's taijutsu became more animalistic, with more power and less skill. He jumped back as far as he could when red chakra began to surround Naruto's body and undertake the rough shapes of long ears and a column formed at the boy's rear, taking on the form of a tail. The boy crouched down where he was in preparation to leap at his foe.

"Naruto-san! Stop!" Izumi ran in between him and Myuri with an arm out to both of them to emphasize her point. "You have proven yourself enough! Please stop whatever you are doing before you hurt someone!"

Only those last three words got through to him. The slitted, ruby eyes turned to the woman and then to Hinata. Izumi's eyes were filled with worry but it was the girl that really scared him. Just then, he came to him senses and realized what he was doing. He was exposing his darkest secret to her. That was the last thing he wanted to do for fear of scaring and alienating her enough to go home, back to Konoha.

Hinata's eyes were wide with confusion and fear as is asking and unspeakable question. Her hands were clenched and shaking on her lap, as was her entire body. As soon as he had looked at her, she looked down, unable to meet his frightening gaze.

Immediately, the red chakra around Naruto was either re-absorbed into his body or dissipated into the air. He hunched over, breathing hard. 'Aw shit, now she's going to hate me. Shit shit shit shit shit shit! How could I be so stupid?'

The whole place was silent, save for his labored breathing.

"What…was that?" Meng spoke for the first time. Her voice was soft but it carried far, since Naruto could hear it from as far away as he was.

"My father's bloodline." Naruto lied with the first thing that came to mind. "Obviously, I didn't get it from my mom."

"Would you please explain it to us?" asked Myuri.

Naruto's eyes flickered to Hinata. "Not now. It'll take a while to explain 'cause it's really complicated."

Even if she was silent, Hinata's mind was working a mile a minute, trying to process all this information. 'Since when did Naruto have a bloodline? And why hasn't he told anybody about it up until now?'

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Meng touched her shoulder and got up. "Come. It is time to rest and eat." She followed her to the mansion towards a door on the left, but she saw Naruto being led across the grounds to the other side by Myuri.

He closed the thick door behind him and pointed to a chair next to a large oval table. "Sit." Naruto did as he was told. Myuri sat in the chair next to him. "Please explain this bloodline of yours. I will not tell the girl if you wish, though I think she should know."

"Thanks and please don't." Naruto sighed. He hung his head in his hands. "My god, I'm so stupid…I shouldn't have lost control, I shouldn't…" He brought his head down to look at the floor by Myuri's feet and took another deep breath. "Ok, I'll tell you the truth since you're going to train me and you're my family somehow. I don't have a bloodline."

Myuri was surprised, though he did not show it. "So you lied?"

The boy looked back down, ashamed. "Yes."

"Why?"

Naruto paused. "….I did for her."

"The girl, Hinata-san, was it?"

"Yeah. Back home in Konoha, all the adults knew but all the kids around my age and younger don't. She's a few months younger than me so she wasn't around when it happened."

"When what happened? Your power or whatever you call it?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, it's more like my personal curse."

He received a curious look.

"Ok, The...the uh…The…" Damn this was hard. "The Kyuubi no Ktisune is… sealed in me. You saw his chakra before when I fought you." He hung his head and waited for the words of hatred, disgust and rejection.

But none came. Myuri sat there with an odd look in his eyes, as if recalling and old memory. "Can you please describe how you got the fox and how you two interact?"

Naruto was confused. Here was the first person he had ever told of his secret and they were… interested in it?

"Um sure, I guess. I dunno the specifics, but the Yondaime Hokage sealed him in me when he attacked Konoha on a wild rampage. He and I can have conversations in my head because he is also a part of me, like a second soul. I can use his chakra, giving me nearly unlimited supply and it's like a backup plan or my last resort. When I get really angry, like I did that one time in Wave country, the chakra flows freely and I sort of transform. I get vampire fangs and my nails sharpen into claws. I feel more like a predator but I still have some sanity. I don't know much else about this because I just found out myself about this a few months ago."

Myuri still sat there with the same expression for a minute…

Three minutes…

Five…

Ten…

Finally, after a while he opened his mouth to speak. "This is very good….Better than I expected, in fact."

A/N: O.o What does he mean by that? I do, you don't. :P Haha. I laugh at you.

Next chapter: Thus the training begins! What will the Uzumaki do about the Kyuubi? How will they react to Naruto using the Rasengan? What is going on in Hinata's head now that she knows a partial truth about the boy she adores? And what is going on in Konoha these days?

Lolz, the heat is making me hyper.

IBP