Hello again Naruto Fans! I'll be honest with you on this; the story sat on the 'To-Do' list since I've dug up Ocarina of Time and took a trip down computer-game-memory-lane and since I've picked up Final Fantasy XIII the consistency of chapter writing may be a little slow, sorry :(
Naruto and all its franchise belong to Kishimoto, us lesser beings are just here to enjoy it, so let's do just that!
Travelling in the wilderness was more difficult on Hanabi than she ever would have wished to admit. As much as she trained within the comfy walls of the Hyuga Compound, her body was thoroughly unprepared for the requirements of cross-country travel. The marching order the two employed – the one where Hanabi would take the lead due to her keen eyesight – was now a crumbling mess as she drifted further and further behind her companion.
Sighing with frustration, Hanabi took a moment to remove her sandal to see blisters beginning to form around the soles and toes of her feet. She also found herself cursing the sky above; the baking sun was far more intense than in the Fire Nation. Rational thought and composure reminded her of why this was; not four hours ago, she'd vocally complained about the heat (only provoking Konohamaru's sniggering) and pulled her map back out to see how much distance they had covered.
Falling into a pit of despair, she found that it would take at least a day and a half to reach their destination at this speed, but noted that their position was very close to the land of Wind. Indeed, armed with this information, Hanabi opted to quickly climb a nearby tree and scan the horizon, much to her companion's confusion. The map was right; though miles into the distance, there was little distraction between her and the deserts of the Wind Nation.
The spectacle would have been lost on Konohamaru – whom was more concerned with any fruit Hanabi may come across whilst up there, but to her the golden sea of sand, swaying in mighty gusts of wind was completely alien to her. With the unpleasantness that plagued the start of her journey, Hanabi had not really thought of how exciting it would be to see other lands; she had to admit that she would on occasion assume the whole world was a mirror image of the forests surrounding her home. Even with her eyes, she strained to take in each detail before her.
However, that was four hours ago. Now she would have offered her eyesight in exchange for a luxurious hot spring with some dumplings, preferably cooked by her sister. Her frustration was further tempered by noticing Konohamaru was practically unaffected by the change in weather. His pace had not hastened or slowed for the majority of the day, and the only time he seemed to feel any sort of strain was when he made his quarter-hourly complaint that they needed to stop and eat.
Hanabi was in luck as this moment fell upon one of these food-checks, and her friend turned and asked to stop. She tried to tell herself that that wasn't possible, that they were already very far behind from their destination and stops like this would only make things worse, but her poor feet were now in command, and were already walking to the side of the path with Konohamaru. She collapsed with relief, arms stretched wide as she stared into the sun.
"…hey, y'know when grown-ups tell you not to look at the sun through a telescope, 'cause you'll go blind…" Konohamaru said, scratching his head as he stared at the lazing Hanabi.
"Hmmm?" Was her unconcerned reply.
"…well, shouldn't you not stare into the sky like that? In case it hurts you're eyesight?"
"..."
"Well?" He pressed.
"Hehe, these eyes aren't magnified glass; they don't intensify the rays, but you've got a point," She rolled onto her stomach and stared ahead into the distance, "…absolutely nothing, we're the only thing for miles."
"I wonder how everyone at the village is doing. Maybe Moegi and Udon got another mission or two…" Konohamaru mused aloud.
"What was with her?" Hanabi asked, still quite scandalised at her behaviour on their first day.
"Oh, haha, it wasn't really at you, our team had just had a bad day, and she can be real nice most of the time." Konohamaru laughed.
"Well, I think such behaviour is ill befitting of a Kunoichi." She muttered.
"What was that?" Konohamaru asked, he was sure Hanabi had said something.
"Nothing, nothing…what's it like Konohamaru?"
"Huh, what?" He asked, bewildered by such a vague question.
"Being in a team: What's it like?"
Konohamaru paused at this. Surely since she was skilled enough to become Genin that she will have known what a team was like. She must've also been placed on one. His answer was given when she continued.
"My father took special interest in my training, I'm guessing since he doesn't value my sister as much. I was allowed into the academy, but he talked with the Hokage and opted to train me specifically. I never got onto a team."
"Huh? You're not on a team? So…your friends?" He was sheepish about speaking these words.
"…I don't really have any. I mean, Hinata and Neji are always kind to me, and their teammates are also very nice. Whenever Neji trains with father, sometimes his over-enthusiastic friend Lee will interrupt requesting a duel. Or if Hinata gets called on a mission, that boy with the dog will always hang around outside, poking fun at her to hurry up. It may be just me, but the two of them have matured – opened up – since they got their teammates."
Hanabi let that explanation linger in the air, and through the corner of her eye observed Konohamaru's reaction.
"…Well, I've got to say, it's the most fun I've ever had. I was real lucky to get my best friends in my team; we were friends before we graduated. Ebisu-Sensei is a friend of Kakashi Hatake's, and both talk about team-work being real important to a ninja. But I never could've imagined I'd wind up with the same two friends I played with for years…"
Days before his departure with Ero-Sannin, Naruto had booked time off one quiet afternoon to tackle a momentous task – no, not to retrieve his lost friend Sasuke, but to finally move the piles of crap scattered across his apartment. Squinting with apprehension, he began to approach a mountain of empty instant-ramen pots. Lifting the first one he laid his hands on, he checked the expiration date…over nine months ago.
Judging by the height and position of this pot, Naruto guessed the pile stretched back to before he graduated from the academy. This was going to get messy.
It was at that moment that a knock on his door had liberated him from his self-imposed shackles of cleaning. Dashing to answer it, he saw Sakura in his doorway.
"Sakura-Chan…you here to see me?" He asked in a flirtatious manner; placing one elbow on the doorway, his hand still clutching the ramen pot. Sakura looked on in annoyance, before noting the date on the pot.
"…oh my god…" she gasped.
"Haha, you're flattering me, but Naruto-Kun will do-"
"That pot is growing fungus in it! You keep that stuff in your house?" She recoiled in horror at this stage. Naruto looked at the pot and sheepishly threw back onto the pile behind him.
"Oh, hehe, sorry…" He grinned.
"Look, Lady Tsunade has summoned you, okay? She said it was something she needed to discuss with you before you left with Master Jiraiya. Well I've done my job," She sighed, clutching her nose as the pungent smell from the apartment began to invade the corridor, "I'm going back to my training."
With that Sakura dashed off, leaving a crestfallen Naruto in her wake.
"Arrgh, what does Grandma-Tsunade want now?"
A little over ten minutes later, and Naruto found out.
"Y-you want my…advice?" He asked, totally bewildered.
Tsunade began to brandish a vein of anger atop her forehead, whilst blushing and looking at anything but the Genin before her.
"Well…you're training with Jiraiya may take some time – we're talking years, so it'll be a while before the leaf can contact you again."
Naruto could not see any conceivable reason why the village would urgently recall him; the rest of the Konoha 12, Iruka-Sensei, Kakashi-Sensei: any of them would do.
"So since you're departing, now's the best chance to get any information from you that may prove helpful in the foreseeable future."
There was a pause.
"Oh I get it! Haha, you want me to reveal all my secrets since I'm such an awesome ninja, don't you Grandma-Tsunade? You're worried that without me, the village will lose its number one Shinobi! Or, or maybe you're too afraid that I'll come back and knock you off the Hokage spot, so you're gonna try and weasel your way into learning all my top-secret weaknesses!" His face became mortified as this thought left his lips, "That's it, isn't it? Ooooh, How…could…you! The village trusts you, I trust you, and you're gonna get rid of me for your own evil selfish little plan-"
Naruto's hysterical trail of thoughts could not continue unchecked, and Tsunade dutifully punched him through her office door before ordering him to walk back in so she could punch him again – he complied. After several minutes of this, Tsunade's temper and Naruto's insanity had both cooled.
"Listen you little pest, this has nothing to do with your so-called skills. This is about Konohamaru."
Naruto squinted his eyes in confusion.
"Huh?" He finally responded.
"Hehe, as articulate as ever, aren't we? The kids in the academy are nearing the next graduation exam; Konohamaru may be one of the candidates Iruka will test. Now, I've already got several reports from him and other Chunin teaching there, a recommendation from Asuma and also reports published shortly before the Third Hokage's death. These reports come from Ebisu – I've been told by both Kakashi and Jiraiya you're acquainted with him – and in the later sections he mentions Konohamaru's main influence was not his teachings but yours."
Naruto still couldn't quite see where she was going with this.
"Look, choosing teams for Genin is a delicate procedure; we don't just draw names out of a hat, you know? Take your team for instance; Sasuke could only flourish more with the aid of friendship (though that was a tad too wishful), Sakura needed to be around people that will encourage her to improve her physical skills and you would do well with both physically and mentally superior Genin-"
"Hey!"
"It worked didn't it? If you were with Shikamaru instead of Sasuke, would you have worked so hard to improve? If Ino and not Sakura were on your team, would you learn as much about the ways of the ninja? Teamwork is a vital part of your occupation, and must be taken into consideration before you even graduate. So, what can you tell me about Konohamaru?"
"…well, the kid's a lot like me, you know? He's best when he feels like he's competing, so it would have to be with someone who'll push him to improve. He's…er…a little bit smarter than I was, hehe, but he doesn't like to be talked down to by someone smarter than him."
Throughout all this, Tsunade nodded intently as she noted down Naruto's words. She finally looked up to ask another question.
"Udon and Moegi, his friends…Shizune commented on how they may work in a similar fashion to Team 10, would you agree?"
"…no! None of them are fat, or obnoxious, or overly lazy. Plus they'd need to learn all sorts of Jutsu-"
"No, no, no! I mean, would they work effectively as a single unit, or are they best at developing skills individually?" Tsunade interrupted.
"Oh! Haha! Well they chase me around sometimes, but it's always too clumsy to be called real teamwork. If you really want my opinion, Konohamaru needs to be with someone to rival him…like Sasuke was to me…that'll bring out the best in him. With those two, he's the leader, and won't improve as much."
"Uh-huh. You've worked with Hinata Hyuga on many missions these last few months, her sister is also considered for the test, she's a lot more like Neji than she is her elder sister. Tell me, would being teamed up with Neji strive you to improve?"
Again taken aback by this seemingly random question, he nodded; it was true – like Sasuke, Neji's approval was highly respected by Naruto.
"Well if Konohamaru's a lot like you, then would it be reasonable to consider placing the two in a team?"
"…yeah, if she's anything like the Hyuga clan member's I've met, teaming up with someone as friendly as him will only do her good."
Konohamaru continued to explain how much fun it was hanging around with his friends each day, until he spotted Hanabi's glum face.
"…what's up?" He asked.
"…nothing…" She sighed.
With that she stood back up and signalled for them to continue their journey. Konohamaru, finishing his snack, was left bemused by her sudden cold demeanour. Was it something he had said?
Rushing up to walk beside her, he wasn't going to let this go so easily.
"What's wrong Hanabi?" He asked in concern.
"I said it's nothing Konohamaru, okay? Now let's get this mission completed and you can go back to your friends…" She sighed.
That was it. The issue of friends had touched a nerve, and he'd been blabbing on about how much fun it was to be on a team, when she had to train all alone. Konohamaru swallowed his pride as he spoke.
"I'm sorry for back there. But, you know, what you said isn't true." Hanabi turned to him as he spoke this.
"I'm your friend." He smiled. Hanabi allowed these words to sink in, before attempting to refute them.
"But you're not a real friend, more a comrade…once the mission is over, you'll be back with Moegi and Udon again, joking about whatever adventures you all get up to…" she looked away, attempted to act unaffected by this.
"No, I'm not a comrade, I'm a friend. When I get back, I'll be joking about whatever adventures you and I get up to out here, and you can be there too, just lighten up and you'll probably realise a lot of people like you."
"Huh?" She asked.
"You don't just get friends, you know, you have to make them. Instead of wishing you had some, go out and make some. I'll introduce you to some of the other Genin; you'll see how popular you can become!" He explained. Hanabi began to bear a shy smile at this. She'd expected him to storm off or ridicule her over her lack of friends, but he wanted to help her.
"But people tend to get the wrong impression of me -" she began.
"That's because you don't let them see you. For the first couple of days out here, I was constantly at arm's length; but once you relaxed, you're pretty cool to be around. I mean, you're smart, funny, pretty -"
"What?" Hanabi asked shocked. Konohamaru froze at that line too; it was just a slip of the tongue.
"T-t-the point I'm making is, you've just got to try, and that's all, instead of feeling sorry for yourself."
"…is this another wise passage from your boss's book on life?" Hanabi asked, giggling – partly because this did sound like a pep talk from Naruto Uzumaki, and partly because of the slip of the tongue he was trying to hide.
"Not really; he says this stuff too, but that's only because it's true – anyone will tell you the same thing. Now come on, if you want to wrap this mission up so soon, and then let's get moving, and then we can laugh about all this, together!" He ran ahead, with Hanabi following behind him, a smile beaming broadly across her face.
The blazing sun had descended as if into hell by the time the two Genin had stopped again. Because of Konohamaru's pace, they had managed to cover far more ground than they thought. Indeed Hanabi could see the land of Greens in the distance, and was debating if stopping now was too lazy, or if heading in there at this hour would provoke the guards into thinking they were the assassins.
Konohamaru made the decision for her, by drifting off into slumber-land without even setting up camp. Sighing and laughing gently, Hanabi sat on a stump near Konohamaru and began to brush her hair absent-mindedly. This was, of course, just a ruse. She'd seen him over a mile ago. Her eyes were sharp even in the dark. He stood only feet away. His straw hat showing slightly from the tree he was hiding behind.
The next thing she saw was a Kunai flashing through her hair as she leapt forwards. It had a strange shape, but before she could note it further, an overbearing pain coursed through her head, causing her to collapse and scream. Konohamaru stirred at this, and leapt up to see the emerging figure of their target. 'Deidara' stood before them, ready to kill.
I know I promised more Kisame V Hinata action in this chapter, but I wouldn't have done it any justice without going way over my desired word count, but next time, I promise you'll see Leaf V Akatsuki in all its glory, Hooray!
Be it good, bad, or ugly (sorry, I was watching westerns the other night) please review to tell me what you think