"Hey," Natsumi called out in barely restrained anger as she waited for Jiraiya to finish doing his 'research'. Hinata was also with them but was semi-hiding behind Natsumi with a red face. Hinata was completely embarrassed at Jiraiya's shameless activities but could not find the courage to call him out on it unlike Natsumi.
When Natsumi asked if it was alright for her to leave the hospital, Hinata told her she was allowed to leave the hospital under strict instructions not to engage in any sort of strenuous physical activities for about a month. She was also told to avoid situations that caused her heart to feel stress as a relapse was very likely to happen if it did. She was supposed to be present for her team's training to prepare Shino for his final matches but since she could do nothing but watch, Kurenai allowed her to skip all of Team 8's training for the month to hang out with Natsumi.
"Very nice... Very nice..." Jiraiya let out a perverted giggle as he watched from behind a thick bush hiding him from the sight of three women bathing on the opposite stream from where he and the two girls were.
"Hey!"
"Looks like they're enjoying themselves," he continued ignoring Natsumi as he watched the women bathe. "Damn it..." he muttered in dejection where they left. "Okay, I'm going to teach you a technique," he said with a complete and utter lack of enthusiasm.
"Are you really going to?" she asked skeptically as he turned to face her.
"Do you remember the two different kinds of chakra I talked to you about yesterday?" he asked her, looking at Hinata with a critical eye.
"It's fine. Hinata-chan knows about the Kyuubi in me," Natsumi replied, knowing what he was referring to. Hinata lost her red face as she perked up at the mention of her name.
"When you gained enormous power during that C-Rank mission, you said that you felt the Kyuubi's chakra, right?"
"Yeah, it felt like that."
"Try and mold some of its chakra now," he gave her his first instruction.
"Even if you tell me to, I don't think I can..." she said doubtfully. "But I can try," she formed a seal to mold her chakra.
"Girl, can you use your Byakugan without your injury acting up?" Jiraiya turned to Hinata.
"Y-Yes!" Hinata slightly stammered when she was addressed, nervous in Jiraiya's presence. Simply activating her doujutsu should not cause her any stress. "Byakugan!"
"Watch her for any red chakra," he told her. "Well?" he asked them after a moment of waiting.
"It's just the normal blue chakra, Jiraiya-sama," she replied.
"Yeah, I can't feel anything different," Natsumi agreed. "It's just my normal chakra."
"Geez, you have no talent at all!" he commented.
"Don't act so bossy!" she snapped. "I'm not really sure about the Kyuubi's chakra anyway!"
"Just keep trying," he told her with a no-nonsense tone and look, making her drop her stubborn attitude and resume trying to mold the red chakra again. Hinata watched Natsumi again as he mentally went through how Natsumi first accessed the Kyuubi's chakra and concluded that danger and intense emotions were the keys to calling upon it.
"It's not working at all," Natsumi sighed as Hinata shook her head as well. "I can only mold my normal chakra. Anyway, Ero-Sennin. How is the Kyuubi's chakra and the technique you're about to teach me related to each other?" she asked.
"Listen up, girl," he pointed his fingers very close to her face, causing her to lean back from it. "The technique I'm about to teach you can't be used with your current amount of chakra." He then poked her hard enough that she started to lose her balance. Hinata quickly righted her before she fell. "So, you need to be able to call up the humongous chakra sleeping within you at any time and be able to use it. That chakra that only you have will become your best weapon."
"Best weapon?" she repeated. She yelped when her cheeks were grabbed and pulled around playfully by Jiraiya.
"If you don't use it, it will just go to waste. And there will be no need to do the same training as everyone else. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You have your own style. The training you have done consisted of maintaining a constant amount of chakra and releasing a constant amount... In other words, that was training to control your chakra so that you wouldn't run out of stamina. But since you have a lot of stamina, you should concentrate on power instead of conserving stamina," he explained before releasing her cheeks. "You have two different chakras, and you do not get exhausted easily. So you should do training where you can release as much chakra as you can and increase your maximum chakra capacity. There are many techniques you can use by doing so."
"Like what, for example?"
"For example, the technique I am about to teach you... The Kuchiyose no Jutsu."
"Summoning?" both girls asked together, neither having heard of such a technique. Jiraiya proceeded to explain what the Kuchiyose no Jutsu was. Basically it was signing a contract with an animal with their own blood and then summoning them whenever they wanted.
"That sounds cool! Hurry up and teach me!" Natsumi said excitedly.
"Hold on, Natsumi-chan. Did you really understand what Jiraiya-sama just said?" Hinata asked. Natsumi froze in her spot before slowing turning to face her with a sheepish expression.
"No, not really..." she admitted, causing Hinata to sweat-drop.
"If you need a reminder, I'll be glad to tell you again," Hinata told her, having already expected any sort of descriptive speech to fly over her friend's head.
"Before I teach you that..." Jiraiya paused to let Natsumi return her attention to him. "You must first use up all your normal chakra."
"I'll help, Natsumi-chan," Hinata offered her help. "I can disrupt the core of your chakra with my Juuken so very little to no chakra can flow through your chakra coils. But it will be painful."
"Don't sweat the small stuff! I'll be fine!" Natsumi reassured her.
"Okay. Brace yourself," Hinata activated and focused her Byakugan to stare at Natsumi's mid-section where all chakra cores were located in humans. Even though she could not see the tenketsu like Neji, the core was big enough that its tenketsu was visible already. With a soft tap, Natsumi gasped in pain and immediately crumpled to the ground. "Natsumi-chan, are you alright? Did I overdo it?" Hinata started to panic, horrified that she might have done irreparable damage.
"I'm... okay..." Natsumi wheezed as she started sweating profusely. Without chakra running through her body, she felt extremely weak and woozy. She almost wanted to pass out right then and there.
"You didn't use up your chakra, but having it completely blocked will do," Jiraiya stood over the fallen blonde who struggled to even move her head to look at him. "I will now teach you the technique."
"I've been waiting!" she cheered as Hinata helped her into a seated position.
"First, I'll show you. Watch carefully." He bit his thumb hard enough to break skin and spread it across his other palm and weaved five hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He put his bloodied palm to the ground and with a burst of white smoke, the same orange toad from the day before appeared.
"That was cool!" Both girls were completely amazed, though only Natsumi voiced it out. The toad extended its tongue to them, offering them a scroll.
"Open that scroll," Jiraiya told them from his position on top of the toad. He explained that it was the contract of the toads for summoning purposes. It had been passed down for many generations and now it was his. He instructed her to write down her name in blood and put down her fingerprints beneath it. All she had to do after that was mold her chakra and place the hand she used to sign the contract to where she wanted the summoning to take place. To Natsumi's disappointment, Jiraiya warned them that this was only for her and was not to be shared with Hinata. If Hinata tried to summon without signing the contract, she might never be able to return to Konoha ever again. That frightened both girls enough to know not to mess around with the jutsu.
"Okay. That's it, right?" Natsumi asked once she had completed all the steps.
"Right now, the Kyuubi's chakra should be easier to extract. Try it once."
"I'm already trying," she was already molding her chakra with Hinata looking on with her Byakugan.
"Wait, Natsumi-chan! You're not-" she tried to tell Natsumi that she had no red chakra flowing through her at all but she was too late.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Natsumi put her palm on the ground with bated breath, wanting to see what she got. Hinata was curious as well and peeked over her shoulder. Both sweat-dropped when the only thing summoned was a baby tadpole.
"Is this how it is for beginners, Jiraiya-sama?" Hinata asked with a slightly hopeful tone, trying to redeem what looked like an absolute failure.
"Geez, you really have no talent at all!" Jiraiya told Natsumi who gave him an insulted look. "Lesson's over for today!" he declared before disappearing in a puff of white smoke along with his toad.
"Hey, wait! Ero-Sennin!" Natsumi futilely called after him.
"Cheer up, Natsumi-chan. I'm sure you'll be able to get it right eventually," Hinata encouraged her.
"Of course I will! I'll show that Ero-Sennin that I do have talent!"
***Break Line***
For three weeks, Natsumi persevered on nothing but her guts in an attempt to successfully perform the Kuchiyose. Technically she already had but summoning a tadpole, regardless if it had arms and legs or not, could not be considered a success in any manner. Jiraiya had told her repeatedly to bring out the Kyuubi's chakra like her life depended on it but she just could not get it to appear. It got to the point where Jiraiya completely ignored her for days to peek on bathing women, only being there in person.
"Hey! Expect something from me, damn it!" she snapped after her latest failure in summoning a toad. Right after that outburst, she felt her strength leave her and she collapsed unconscious. It had happened several times before and Hinata nearly had a relapse of her cardiac arrest the first time it happened. Now she knew to keep her calm and tend to her gently, making sure nothing else happened to her.
"Jiraiya-sama? Is this truly safe for Natsumi-chan? She's been collapsing faster as of late..." Hinata asked worriedly.
"This is not unexpected," Jiraiya answered. "She trained continuously for three weeks straight on perseverance alone." They then waited for Natsumi to regain consciousness but after an hour, he grew impatient. "Hey! Wake up!" he dumped a bucket of water on her. That woke her up with a start.
"What?" Natsumi exclaimed as she shot up into a sitting position.
"You have zero talent. You trained for three weeks, and you're still at this level. It might be useless for you to continue," he told her.
"That's not true! I'm working hard, even if it doesn't seem like it! Hinata-chan can vouch for me!" she defended her efforts.
"I know that. But if you want to master the Kuchiyose no Jutsu, you need to train harder... as if your life depended on it."
"I am! I mold chakra everyday as if my life depended on it! If you have time to complain, why don't you tell me a tip or two on how to do it!"
"A tip?" he scratched his head with a look of doubt. "A tip, huh..."
"What? You're going to tell me?"
"Put your life on the line."
"My life?" she repeated. Both Hinata and her had stunned looks on their faces. Did he truly mean that?
"I'm not kidding here," he said as if he had read their minds. "Will you still do it?"
"Of course! I always put my life on the line!"
"I see. Then follow me." As he left the area, both girls followed him with confused looks on their faces. When he led them into a hot springs establishment, Natsumi began to have doubts.
"What are we going to do here? Don't tell me that you're going to peek again," she accused.
"That might be nice but, for today, we're going to bathe," he replied without any of his perverted eccentricities. "We need to cleanse our bodies first. You girls go have some fun at the girl's side."
"Jiraiya-sama... He's acting weird..." Hinata told Natsumi as they headed to the girl's side of the hot springs.
"Yeah... He's even weirder than usual today," Natsumi agreed. Still, none of them protested to the soothing waters as their bodies relaxed as they bathed.
***Break Line***
"Hey, Ero-Sennin," Natsumi called Jiraiya as they walked back to the general vicinity of Konoha.
"Gama-Sennin," he corrected her.
"I don't care," she brushed him off. "What does taking a bath and the Kuchiyose have to do with each other?" Instead of replying, he suddenly stopped walking. "What now?"
"Hey, Natsumi. Do you have something you want to eat?" he asked her.
She obviously picked Ichiraku Ramen as her place to eat. But after she was done though, Jiraiya had left her and Hinata behind. Even Hinata had missed his departure. Natsumi had just enough to cover her own expensive tab of multiple ramen bowls, which meant she had no savings left if she paid. She hugged Hinata gratefully with tears streaming down her eyes when she offered to take on the full amount. Being the biggest clan in Konoha, the Hyuugas were bound to be rich and Hinata was no exception to that. She just had a lot of money saved up since she never really got to go out and spend it during her younger years.
"Hey, are you full now?" Jiraiya suddenly appeared to them as they entered a street.
"That was cruel, Ero-Sennin! I thought that you were going to treat us!" Natsumi yelled at him.
"Fool. I never said that I was going to treat you," he smoothly countered.
"You call yourself an adult? Damn you!"
"By the way, Natsumi, do you have a boy you like?" he asked.
"Huh?" both girls were surprised by the sudden change of topic.
"I'm asking if you have a man you love." Jiraiya frowned when silence followed and both girls were staring at him like he had just asked a stupid question. A grin graced his mouth as he adjusted his original question. "If not a boy, than maybe another girl? It might not necessarily be love, but a woman you greatly admire?" For some unexplained reason, both Natsumi and Hinata faced each other at that. When their eyes met, they quickly turned away with blushes present on their faces.
While Jiraiya obviously thought it was love between both girls, it was actually great admiration for each other. Hinata admired Natsumi's never-say-die attitude, while Natsumi admired Hinata's gentle personality. To Hinata, Natsumi was a shining beacon of courage and hope. To Natsumi, Hinata was a shining beacon of light and purity. They had saved one another from their respective psychological demons. Hinata was saved by Natsumi's belief in her that she had always been strong, stronger than she herself had believed, and that she was never weak to begin with. Natsumi was saved by Hinata's kindness. Hinata saw the horribly lonely girl that she really was who only wanted someone to acknowledge her existence, and became her friend for life.
"Well, there might be one that I like..." Natsumi mumbled but Jiraiya heard her clearly. Hinata only occupied herself by poking her index fingers together.
"A boy or a girl?" he prodded.
"A girl that might be Hinata-chan..."
"So you do have a girl you like?"
"Actually, it is Hinata-chan!" Natsumi broke under his prodding. It was obvious the two girls liked each other, otherwise they would not be friends in the first place. While Jiraiya meant the more intimate kind of 'like', she thought he was only asking if she liked, the normal kind of 'like', Hinata.
"Oh? How about you, Hinata?" Jiraiya questioned the red-faced Hyuuga.
"I like Natsumi-chan too..." she admitted, focusing her entire being into not fainting. She, on the other hand, knew what kind of 'like' Jiraiya was referring to and was forcing her brain into accepting that she was admitting only to the more innocent kind of 'like'.
"Okay," he nodded to their answers. "Go do something the two of you have always wanted to do together."
"Eh?" both girls exclaimed with red faces. "Is that part of the training?" Natsumi added.
"Something like that."
"Let us talk about this for a while," she requested as she went to Hinata's side. "What do you want to do, Hinata-chan?"
"I don't know... What about you, Natsumi-chan?" Hinata asked back.
"We have to do something."
"Well, then..."
"I know! How about we just hang out in the village? We've never done that, have we?" Natsumi suggested excitedly.
"That's a good idea," Hinata nodded her agreement. "We never got the chance to during our time in the Academy, did we? Shall we go?"
"All right! Then we'll go right away. See you later, Ero-Sennin!" Natsumi waved at him as both girls walked to wherever their feet let them.
"Time for some data gathering," Jiraiya said to himself with a gleam in his eyes as he secretly followed them.
He watched them go to the park where they played as if they were only half their ages with cheerful, innocent smiles on their faces. Hinata then brought Natsumi to a shop where she frequented on her free time after her training with Team 8 where they enjoyed one of Hinata's favorite food. After that, at her request, they rested at a public bench where Natsumi untied her hair so Hinata could play with it to her heart's content. Jiraiya was impressed at the many hairstyles Hinata was capable of producing with Natsumi's very long hair. He himself had never seen Natsumi let her hair down even once. After that, they went to get ice-cream, something Natsumi had never tasted before. She did not know the proper way to eat it either and caused a mess all over her face. Hinata giggled in great amusement, almost giving in to a full laughter before taking a napkin and wiped Natsumi's face for her. Jiraiya admitted that had Natsumi been born a boy, they would make a perfect example of a couple who were completely smitten with each other. Then again, two girls doing the same thing was not a bad thing either. Well, it was time for good things to come to an end. He almost hated stopping them now, but it was for Natsumi's own good.
"Alright, back to training. Your date ends here," he appeared in front of them with a puff of white smoke. At the mention of the word 'date', both their faces turned completely red as Natsumi tried and failed miserably in denying that because she could not form the words to speak. He led them back to the forested path they came in from and started walking.
"Hey. Is a toad really going to come out by doing these things?" Natsumi asked after a while.
"Yes, I am positive of it," Jiraiya replied.
"Really?" she was still skeptical of him.
"Did you do everything you wanted to?" he asked. "Do you have nothing else to do?"
"What are you-" Natsumi was silenced by a hard punch to the gut and she immediately blacked out. Hinata only gasped in horror at the sudden assault.
"Natsumi-chan!" she rushed to her fallen friend. "Jiraiya-sama, what are you doing?"
"Trust me. This is for her own growth," he replied.
"But..." Hinata tried to protest but quickly submitted to his stern look. "Y-Yes, Jiraiya-sama..."
"Since you seem to be a very reliable and knowledgeable girl and you know of the Kyuubi sealed in Natsumi, I will tell you this," Jiraiya told her. "Mastering the control needed to extract great chakra when it is needed and using it is indeed hard. Additionally, Natsumi's body is too small to serve as a proper container to accept the Kyuubi's chakra. Her body most likely tries to avoid stress to itself by rejecting its chakra. Danger and intense emotions are the keys for her to call upon its chakra. I'm going to make her learn how to use those keys with her body. Now, follow me." He carried the unconscious blonde like a sack of potatoes and led Hinata to a deeper, more secluded part of the forest where he dumped Natsumi to the ground.
"Huh? Where am I...?" Natsumi groggily asked as she woke up.
"Stand up!" Jiraiya ordered.
"What?" she asked carefully. He never got this stern unless she royally pissed him off.
"The training ends here," he declared.
"Wait, I didn't learn anything!"
"Natsumi!" he silenced her. "I want you to die now."
"Jiraiya-sama!" Hinata exclaimed. "Please don't joke like that!"
"Try to extract the Kyuubi's chakra within you from the fear of death. Experience that with your body, and grasp the trick to do it. If you don't want to die, do something on your own!" With a chakra-enhanced push to her forehead with just his finger, she was sent flying through the trees and bushes. When she saw the land beneath her disappear into a seemingly bottomless ravine with spikes on the face of the cliff, panic immediately filled all her senses as she fell. That was what Hinata witnessed when she activated her Byakugan out of terrified worry for Natsumi.
"NATSUMI-CHAN!" Hinata screamed as tears immediately filled her vision as she immediately sprinted for the edge of the cliff, futilely reaching out for her as if her arm could stretch and catch her. The only response she got was fearful screaming. Knowing it was not the time for her to fall into despair just yet and that Natsumi needed her help now more than ever, she cleared her mind and focused. Natsumi was close enough to the rocks to grab onto. "Natsumi-chan! Remember your training! Stick to the rocks!" she shouted down. Her fear for her friend only intensified when Natsumi failed to do so. "Why...?" she questioned.
"That's not possible," Jiraiya answered as he walked up to her.
"Eh?" Hinata's Byakugan-active eyes were filling up with more tears now as she turned to face him physically.
"The rock surfaces here are slippery because of the waterfall," he pointed to the waterfall to the side. "On top of that, at the speed she's falling, she cannot cling onto a rock with her current chakra control. All she can do now is to rely on the Kyuubi's chakra. She has to use the key to unlocking it from her side now." He watched as Hinata deactivated her Byakugan as her tears fell even faster. Her hands went to her mouth to cover her sobs but it was still very audible. Although he understood what it was like from her point of view, he could not afford to show sympathy now. "I believe you already know that if she fails to do that, she dies."
"No... No... No..." Hinata did not want to believe it but deep down she knew what failure meant. Natsumi had a lot of failures before, only she would no longer be able to stand back up to try again from this one. She shook her head to deny that reality as hard as she could. The panic, the fear, and the emotional agony she was undergoing was too much for her heart and with one very harsh coughing fit, she heaved out a blob of blood. Jiraiya immediately delivered a chop to the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious and ceasing her panic attack. It was a shame he had to do that though, because she missed Natsumi pulling through and managing to perform the summoning that meant success as well as saving her own life.
***Break Line***
After summoning the Toad Boss Gamabunta and telling him that it was her and not Jiraiya who summoned him, Gamabunta only laughed at Natsumi which pissed her off. Before she exploded with anger, she remembered that she had to reassure Hinata that she was safe and sound because they both thought she was going to die. She promised Gamabunta that she would get Jiraiya to explain everything once he got them out of the ravine. Satisfied by that answer, he obliged with one giant leap, easily going over the ravine and landing with such an impact the entire forest shook.
"Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan!" Natsumi yelled for her friend once she got over her disorientation. "Where are you?"
"Hey, over here!" Jiraiya called from somewhere nearby, carrying an unconscious Hinata over his shoulder.
"Hinata-chan!" Natsumi cried out in worry, quickly jumping off Gamabunta to check on her friend.
"She started suffering a relapse, so I knocked her out to stop it from getting worse," Jiraiya replied as he gently placed her on the ground. Hinata started to moan as she regained consciousness.
"Hinata-chan! Are you okay?" Natsumi asked her, checking for a fever. Instead of answering verbally, tears rapidly built up in Hinata's eyes as she hugged Natsumi tightly.
"Natsumi-chan! I'm so glad! I'm so glad you did it! I thought you would die!" she cried, openly weeping for her friend and hugging her so tightly as if she would vanish if she softened her grip even one bit. The sound of Hinata crying so hard tore a hole in Natsumi's heart.
"I'm fine, Hinata-chan... I'm fine..." she reassured with a voice that was void of life. Natsumi was not paying attention to the world anymore. All her brain could process almost mechanically was she had made Hinata cry. Again. Because Hinata thought she was really about to die. All because she wanted to perfect the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. Because that was what Jiraiya said was specially for her. Because he took over her training. And this was training. Training that made Hinata cry. Training that he came up with. He made Hinata cry. At that point, she took leave of her rationality and replaced it with blind anger and hatred. Jiraiya made Hinata cry. That was all her mind could retain in perfect clarity. He would pay.
"N-Natsumi-chan...?" Hinata whispered when killing intent permeated through her senses. Her body instinctively shivered in fright due to its density. Hinata had felt this once before, when Natsumi had been extremely upset they had not been placed in the same team. "What's wrong...?"
"Hinata-chan, I need to settle some things with Ero-Sennin urgently. Things like tearing him to pieces!" Natsumi roared in absolute fury at the end. Jiraiya merely watched her sternly, already aware that all her killing intent was focused on him. With a speed Hinata could not properly follow, Natsumi was gone from her side to already cocking a punch to take off Jiraiya's head. But of course, being a Sannin, he easily dodged the punch by swerving to the side. Natsumi dragged her feet across the ground to stop her momentum and faced him. She roared furiously, emitting a shock wave that blew apart the trees near her but was completely ineffective against him. He merely stood there and took it without any signs of injury or discomfort.
'Did she take too much of the Kyuubi's chakra?' Jiraiya pondered as he stared down the enraged blonde girl. 'No, she was fine until a moment ago. Seeing as how I'm her target, I did something that caused her to feel immense rage towards me.' He did all his mental work while deftly avoiding Natsumi's anger-fueled attacks.
"How dare you make Hinata-chan cry!" Natsumi roared as she tried and missed again at trying to land a hit on the Toad Hermit, only serving to further increase her rage. "I'll crush you!"
'Hinata? Cry?' Jiraiya instantly identified the core words of her accusation. A glance towards Hinata revealed that the Hyuuga girl was too terrified of Natsumi's rage to even utter a single word to attempt to calm her down. He had to stop her now. "Enough of this foolishness!" he declared as he cleanly hit Natsumi with a spinning midair kick as she was charging in, sending her crashing into a tree. The tree toppled on her, but a roar blew it to pieces, revealing her to be in a stance where she was on all four limbs like a predatory animal ready to pounce. "Calm down and look at your friend! Does killing me means it will soothe her? Do you really believe she wants you to do that?"
Though completely enraged, Natsumi still had the sense of mind to understand words. When she took a look at Hinata and saw a completely terrified girl staring at her with unadulterated fear in her eyes, all her rage vanished and was replaced with horror. Hinata was afraid of her because she got so angry she was willing to kill Jiraiya who had only tried to teach her. It was even worse than the time she made her cry when she showed her the Oiroke no Jutsu. The sudden shock caused all the Kyuubi's chakra she was using to recede back into her seal.
"Hinata-chan, I'm sorry... So sorry... I didn't mean to make you scared! I...!" Natsumi tried to convince both Hinata and herself that she only did what she thought was right but could not find the words. Only Hinata's fearful eyes continued to stare at her. "Don't... Don't be scared of me! I'm begging you, Hinata-chan! Don't look at me like that!" she screamed, turning around to block out the haunting image. Even when she squeezed her eyes shut, she could still see those terrified eyes in her mind.
Natsumi's desperate plea to Hinata shook her out of her terrified state. Simply feeling the rage and killing intent rolling off her was enough to cause her to be completely frozen in fear. She had been so scared her heart could not even race to trigger a relapse. She had been so scared she was completely left unaware of her surroundings, only able to stare at the cause of her terror. It was as if time had stopped for the world around them.
"Natsumi-chan!" Hinata finally managed to utter. At the sound of her name, her shoulders hitched but she did not turn around. Hinata's whole body was still shaking with fear but she willed herself to stand and walk towards Natsumi. 'Natsumi-chan needs me...' she chanted in her head repeatedly. Natsumi needed to know that Hinata was still there for her. She was still there to comfort her. She was still there by her side. As long as she was able, Natsumi would never be alone again. With each step she took, she shook off her fear of the Kyuubi's foul chakra. When she made her way to Natsumi's back, she wrapped her arms around the blonde girl with a gentle, comforting motion. "It'll be okay, Natsumi-chan. I won't be scared of you anymore. I know you would never hurt me. I know you were only trying to protect me. Thank you. So... It's okay... We promised that we're friends for life. I won't ever break or forget that promise. That's my promise of a lifetime to you," she consoled her, leaning her body on Natsumi's back. She could feel Natsumi's body shaking heavily in an effort to stop herself from crying out loud. Only soft sniffling and restrained sounds of anguish could be heard. "Don't cry, Natsumi-chan. I'm always here for you." Although she said that, tears of relief were threatening to fall from her own eyes too.
"Hey, Jiraiya! What is the meaning of this? Why did you get the kid to summon me?" Gamabunta asked.
"She's the kid the Fourth Hokage chose. I needed her to access the Kyuubi's chakra and summon you to save her own life," Jiraiya explained. "This might sound rude, but could you share your power with her?"
"Don't ask such a dumb question. If she was willing to kick your butt just for making her friend cry, I can trust her with the safety of any toad she summons," he replied.
"That's good to hear."
"Ero-Sennin, I..." he heard Natsumi address him. He turned to her and saw a look of complete remorse and guilt on her face.
"It's fine. If you couldn't take on Orochimaru even with that power, you can't take me on either!" he let out a hearty laugh.
"Thanks, Ero-Sennin..." she thanked him for his forgiveness rather than get insulted at his boasting.
"Your training is now officially over. From now until the day of the finals, you are to rest and allow your body to recuperate. Now that you know how it feels to call on the Kyuubi's chakra, your body will be feeling quite stressed since it's still too small to properly contain it. It needs time to get used to the presence of its chakra whenever you decide to use it. I don't want you to do training of any sort unless you want to feel sore even before your matches start and then lose. Understood?" he gave his final instruction.
***Break Line***
On the day of the final matches, Hinata was accompanying Natsumi to the arena. Instead of looking pumped or excited, Natsumi had a constant look of worry and doubt on her face.
"Natsumi-chan, are you alright?" Hinata asked worriedly. It was clearly more than simple nerves acting up in anxiety.
"Say, Hinata-chan... Do you really believe I'm strong?" Natsumi asked, her voice filled with depression.
"What are you saying, Natsumi-chan? Of course I believe you're strong!" Hinata exclaimed. "Did something happen during the three days Jiraiya-sama instructed you to rest?" Natsumi only nodded before telling her about the time Shikamaru invited her along to pay Chouji a visit in the hospital. Instead, they found the Suna boy named Gaara about to kill Lee in his medically-induced sleep in his own room. She was shocked but not entirely threatened by him when he told them he had a monster in him too. Her fear for him only came about when he revealed that he believed his only proof of existence was to keep killing the people around him. She got scared of him because she could understand his feelings. It was a real possibility that she too could have descended into that same madness from the sheer loneliness if she had not met Hinata on that fateful day so many years ago.
"To be honest, I don't think I can win against him... or Neji..." Natsumi admitted. "Their eyes... They scare me..."
"They do...?" Now Hinata was very worried because she too once feared the look in her cousin's eyes. "But... Didn't you learn the Kuchiyose no Jutsu from Jiraiya-sama?"
"Ero-Sennin forbade me from using it against Neji when I told him who my opponent was."
"Why?"
"I don't really get it, but he said something about Juuken being fatal against animals. He said he would remove my contract with the toads if I disobeyed him."
"That's because humans and animals handle chakra differently and our chakra coils are very different. If a Hyuuga isn't careful, we could disrupt the chakra in an animal or ruin their chakra coils permanently," Hinata explained.
"Then what's the point of teaching me that?" Natsumi grumbled.
"It's not useless, Natsumi-chan. You can ask for the Kyuubi's chakra now and your maximum chakra capacity has grown quite a bit," she consoled her.
"Really? Well, if you say so, Hinata-chan. Also, about that talk we had the other day about me meeting the Kyuubi... I was acting like a total ass. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Natsumi-chan. You didn't know."
***Flashback***
"...And so I called him a monster fox and told him that he had to give his chakra as rent for staying in my body!" Natsumi bragged about her meeting with Kyuubi in the privacy of her apartment.
"Natsumi-chan..." Hinata had a heavy frown on her face. "That's..."
"Awesome, right?"
"No, it isn't."
"Hinata-chan?" Natsumi was surprised at her response.
"Natsumi-chan, you..." Hinata fidgeted in her seat, searching for the words that sounded the least offensive to Natsumi. "Do you like Neji-nii-san's behavior towards me?"
"What? Of course not! Why would I even like that?" she exclaimed.
"...Because you're behaving exactly like him."
"What...?" Natsumi was stunned at her accusation.
"Neji-nii-san hates the Main House for a personal tragedy that was done to him. He simply hates me because I happen to be born in the Main House even though I did not do anything to him. You're acting the exact same way towards the Kyuubi."
"Huh? The Kyuubi attacked the village! I don't know what happened to Neji, but those are completely different things!" Natsumi could not see anything similar between Neji's personal tragedy and the Kyuubi's rampage on the day she was born.
"Yes, but at the same time, Neji-nii-san is forced to obey the Main House because of his seal just like the Kyuubi is forced to obey you because he dies if you die. Doesn't that sound similar?"
"That's..." she started to protest when Hinata's words penetrated through her thick skull. "Yeah, it does..."
"Because of a personal tragedy done to Neji-nii-san, he hates me even though I tried to be family with him. Because of the attack on the village, you hate the Kyuubi even though he just saved your life by giving you his chakra to summon Gamabunta-sama. He gave you his chakra a few times already, didn't he? Because the Kyuubi was sealed in you, the villagers hate you even though you have done nothing to them. Do you understand, Natsumi-chan? You're doing the exact same thing Neji-nii-san is doing to me and what the villagers have been doing to you for years. Do you want to be like them?"
"N-No! That's not what I was trying to do! I just thought...!" she was getting panicked because she never intended to do anything of that sort.
"I sincerely wish to fix my relationship with Neji-nii-san because we're family. Instead of constantly hating, shouldn't we get along instead? You're always helping me get stronger, Natsumi-chan. I wish to be acknowledged by my father. I wish to show him that I am not worthless and that I am a daughter that he can be proud of. You'll try to help Neji-nii-san too, won't you? It's not his fault something so terrible happened to him. He's just very lost and confused," Hinata nearly pleaded with her.
"Anything for you, Hinata-chan," she swore. "I'll promise I'll do everything I can to help Neji! I'll make sure you guys are a family again!"
"Thank you so much, Natsumi-chan," she gave her heart-felt thanks. "And, with the Kyuubi..."
"Yeah..." Natsumi scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I'll try to get along with him. We'll probably fight quite a lot though..."
"Make sure you thank him for lending you his chakra. It's proper manners to thank someone when they help you," Hinata reminded her like a mother would to her forgetful child.
"Okay!"
***End Flashback***
"Do I really stand a chance against Neji?" Natsumi pondered.
"You might be able to defeat him, Natsumi-chan," Hinata told her.
"Yeah! I'm strong, after all!" she laughed boisterously to raise her own spirits but it did not work. The reality that Neji, let alone Gaara, was much stronger and much more skilled than her was crushing her hopes of victory.
"I'm sure you can beat him, Natsumi-chan. I'm always cheering for you. When you cheered me on, I felt like I had become stronger than before. Ever since we were little, you were always cheering me on. You helped me like myself better and grow stronger. It's all thanks to you."
"Hey, Hinata-chan. Do you really think that?" she asked, her spirits still not lifted. "I might look strong from your point of view because we've been together for so long. You know I always screw up and I only act strong because I'm mad at myself."
"That's not true!" Hinata exclaimed loudly, surprising Natsumi because she was usually soft-spoken. "Even if you did make a mistake, you were always a proud person who made those mistakes. You're not perfect, so you make mistakes and you grow stronger from them. I believe that is true strength. Natsumi-chan, you really are a strong person," she encouraged her. As she did, she wondered why her face felt warm. Was she blushing?
"Thank you, Hinata-chan," Natsumi thanked her sincerely. "I've always been last at almost everything, so I was nervous over nothing. I was a bit depressed, but I feel better now!"
"Natsumi-chan..." she smiled warmly at being able to help her best friend get over her anxiety. "Remember what you said when I grew afraid in front of Neji-nii-san? You said you were always with me, even if it's only in spirit. This time, my spirit is with you Natsumi-chan. After all, you've been holding on to my hitai-ate for the whole month, haven't you?"
"Yeah, that's right! Be sure to cheer for me when I beat Neji," she said cheekily as they arrived at the arena entrance. "See you later, Hinata-chan!" she waved as they split paths to their respective destinations. Natsumi held her head high as she entered the arena battleground where the other competitors were already there and lined up. "Hey, Shikamaru. Where's Sasuke?" she asked.
"He's not here yet. The Dosu guy who was supposed to fight me isn't here, either," Shikamaru answered.
"Hey, you two," the proctor for the final matches interrupted them. "Stop talking among yourselves. Stand up straight and show your faces to the crowd. You guys are the main players in the upcoming tournament." Natsumi looked around the stands and took in the view of the crowd. She knew there would be spectators but did not expect it was this many. Knowing Hinata was watching and was with her in spirit, she grew determined to fulfill the promise of helping Neji see the error of his ways and to once again be a proper family together with Hinata. The Hokage announced the start of the tournament and the proctor mentioned there was a little change to the match-ups. He advised them to check who their opponents were again but Natsumi did not particular bother. She was still up against Neji in the first round and that was all that mattered. However, Sasuke's absence did bother her.
"Hey!" she raised her hand to ask a question.
"What?" the proctor asked.
"Sasuke hasn't arrived yet. What are we going to do?"
"If he doesn't come here by the time his match starts, he will lose by default." That made Natsumi a little worried because it was so unlike Sasuke to miss out on a fight with strong opponents. The proctor proceeded to explain that although the landscape is different, the same rules they used during the preliminary matches were the same in the sense that there were no rules. The matches would only end if someone died, gave up, or was declared the victor by the proctor's decision. No arguments were going to entertained over the judgement. With everything said and done, the first match was officially underway as the other competitors left the battlefield.
The first match: Uzumaki Natsumi VS Hyuuga Neji.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
The training for the Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
Canon: Naruto trains under Jiraiya's supervision all by himself for the month.
My version: Hinata accompanies Natsumi with the training the entire month. In canon, she is seen watching her team help Shino prepare for his matches in the Chuunin Exam finals but she doesn't do anything because she is still injured from her match with Neji. But because they are best friends, Kurenai allows her to be with Natsumi until the hospital clears her for active duty.
Jiraiya instructing Naruto to use up all his normal Chakra before signing the contract for summoning the toads.
Canon: Naruto starts a battle royale with as many Kage Bunshin as he can manage.
My version: Hinata offers to close the tenketsu closest to the chakra core, leaving Natsumi almost void of chakra as her chakra cannot leave the core and move through her chakra coils.
Jiraiya asking if Naruto was interested in a girl.
Canon: Naruto mentions Sakura and Jiraiya tells him to give her a hug. Instead of a hug, he receives a blow to the face.
My version: Jiraiya initially asks if Natsumi was interested in a boy. When he got no reaction, he asks if it is a girl instead. Natsumi mentions that she is interested in a girl that is obviously Hinata, much to her and Hinata's embarrassment. Once again, due to how dense Natsumi is, she completely misses the fact that Jiraiya meant the more intimate kind of like. Hinata gets it, though, but tells herself she is only admitting to the more innocent kind of like just like Natsumi did. Instead of hugging it out, Jiraiya tells them to do whatever they want to do together and they decide to spend some time hanging out like normal girls.
Jiraiya knocking Naruto off the edge of the cliff.
Canon: Naruto manages to make contact with the Kyuubi in his sub-conscience and coerces some of his chakra by threat of dying together.
My version: Exactly the same, so I didn't write it down. Instead, I wrote about Hinata who was witnessing as a spectator and having a complete breakdown at the thought of Natsumi dying from being knocked off the cliff.
Naruto making conversation with Gamabunta.
Canon: After failing to convince Gamabunta that he was the summoner and not Jiraiya, they got into an argument before Gamabunta leaped out of the ravine.
My Version: Before the argument could break out, Natsumi promised Gamabunta that she would get Jiraiya to explain everything if he got them out of the ravine because she needed to tell Hinata that she was fine.
Gamabunta's test for Naruto.
Canon: Naruto stays on Gamabunta's head for nearly the entire day in order to prove that he was worthy of summoning the Toad Boss.
My Version: The test never happens as Hinata breaks down crying in relief for Natsumi. Natsumi knows that her training caused her to cry because of how it looked like to Hinata and blindly pins the blame on Jiraiya. In her Kyuubi-fueled fury, she briefly attacks him in order to make him pay before he manages to calm her down through Hinata.
Naruto's 'journey' to the arena.
Canon: He visits the training grounds where he first graduated as a Genin and talks to Hinata who raises his spirits. Seeing as he was late, he rushes there only to be sidetracked continuously by Konohamaru who claimed to know shortcuts to the arena before being chased by bulls all the way to the arena.
My Version: Hinata accompanies Natsumi to the arena while they talk, so they aren't late and don't get sidetracked by Konohamaru. They definitely didn't get chased by bulls, either.
Extra Scene: Natsumi brags to Hinata about her 'courageous' meeting with the Kyuubi which only makes Hinata upset by her attitude towards the Bijuu. She mentions that Natsumi was treating the Kyuubi with the same amount of hate Neji and the villagers has for them respectively. Being the kind person that she is, she makes Natsumi promise to try to get along with the Kyuubi. As far as they knew, other than the Kyuubi's attack on the village, he has not yet done anything to earn Natsumi's personal hate towards it and has helped her before they even met personally.
***Break Line***
The month of training is done! Various things have changed because Natsumi has Hinata with her throughout her training. In canon, we know Naruto never summoned any toads in his fight against Neji which begs the question as to why he learned the Kuchiyose in the first place. So in my story, I had Jiraiya forbid the summoning. To explain my extra scene further, Hinata is encouraging Natsumi to foster better relations with the Kyuubi because they are stuck together. Neji has hated her for years and they live in the clan compound together, so she knows how harmful constantly hating someone can be.
Next chapter is the fight between Natsumi and Neji! You can look forward to it as there will be many changes in that fight!
I look forward to getting more readers who like this story! Do Follow/Favorite/Review this story, and big thanks to those who are kind enough to do so!