In the end, Natsumi, Hinata and Jiraiya fled the scene of the attack and did not get their rest. Before Guy returned to Konoha for Sasuke's medical treatment, he asked for Jiraiya to find Tsunade and bring her back. Natsumi answered in his stead, claiming they would find and bring her back for sure. Guy was impressed with her confidence and told her he liked gutsy kids like her. He had a gift for her and told her it helped Lee become as strong as he was. Naturally, Natsumi was pumped and excited about it. Giving his trademark 'nice guy' pose, he pulled out a green jumpsuit from his vest and held it out proudly, letting it flap in the wind.
Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched in irritation upon seeing it, Hinata was looking at it neutrally, and Natsumi was overjoyed and cheering. Guy went on to describe its positive aspects and if Natsumi wore it during training, she would be able to tell the difference immediately and quickly get addicted to it. After that, she would want to wear it all the time like Lee and himself. Natsumi accepted it wholeheartedly as Jiraiya slowly backed away from them while pulling Hinata along. Hinata looked up at him with confusion, not seeing what was so wrong about the jumpsuit. He did not need Natsumi telling her the jumpsuit was amazing or something similar when it clearly was not.
"Will it look good on me?" Natsumi gushed in an unusually girly manner, waving the jumpsuit in her hands after her group saw Guy off.
"It won't," Jiraiya told her. "Look at the guy in front of you. It looks really crappy."
"You can't compare me to him. He's a guy and I'm a girl. We won't look the same," she defended her feminity.
"Fine," he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Go change behind the large bush there and Hinata will be the judge." When she gave him a suspicious look, he snorted. "I won't peek. You have my word. Now hurry up and change so we can get this over with."
"How is it?" Natsumi asked, confident in her appearance after she changed and moving from side to side to give them various angles to look from. Jiraiya wanted to barf at the hideous display in front of him but at the same time he noticed certain aspects which tickled the fancy of his perverted nature. Judging by Hinata's red face and how she was hiding behind him, she noticed those aspects too. The form-fitting jumpsuit unnecessarily accented Natsumi's growing figure. It was not skin-tight like her spandex biker shorts she was wearing underneath her skirt, but still very noticable nonetheless. In other words, the shape of her breasts and her butt were very prominently displayed.
"Can you change back? Please?" Hinata asked in a semi-pleading tone. It was not so much the jumpsuit but from embarrassment that the first things her eyes were attracted to after Natsumi showed herself were her chest and her behind. Her brain tried to rationalize that it was not totally her fault because those two areas were the most eye-catching to anyone looking. Natsumi's smile immediately turned upside-down as she returned to the bush to change back, muttering about how it was not as good as she thought if Hinata did not think it was.
"What do you think, Hinata?" she heard Jiraiya ask.
"W-Well... It was a little embarrassing to look at, but I don't think it was too bad..." she replied, poking her index fingers together out of habit.
"You're not just defending her, are you?"
"N-No, Jiraiya-sama! I honestly thought that..." she trailed off, too embarrassed to go into details.
Jiraiya observed her carefully before letting out a heavy sigh. Natsumi probably did not care for what she wore as long as she liked it, as evidenced by the current situation. She got used to wearing the spandex biker shorts and skirt too since she stopped complaining about it after a few days since he gave it to her. She still preferred pants and took every opportunity she got when he was not around to wear them. Hinata on the other hand only seemed to prefer very conservative clothes. It was not an eyesore like Guy's choice of clothes, but it was dull to look at. He could tell she was an honest girl and if what she said was truly her opinion and not to defend Natsumi's image, then this girl had no fashion sense to speak of. He sighed again as his observations, if accurate, would lead to a unflattering outcome in the future. How were they going to truly appreciate their bodies when they grew up if they knew nothing about fashion?
***Break Line***
As they made their way to the next city, Natsumi and Hinata learned from Jiraiya that the organization Itachi worked for, Akatsuki, were after the Kyuubi sealed in Natsumi but he did not know what they wanted it for or planned to do with it. However, as long as it was sealed in her, she was their target and perhaps they wished to have the Kyuubi's power under their control. He acknowledged the fact it was a cruel thing to have the Akatsuki after her but it was fate. To lighten the dark mood, he told her not to worry as he would protect her. Instead of looking down and depressed, Natsumi had a confident smile on her face.
"Then I need to become stronger!" she declared. "All right! Let's find this Tsunade person, have her heal Sasuke, and start training!" Jiraiya and Hinata smiled proudly at her reaction, having expected that she would not let herself get knocked down by a terrible situation and would work to overcome it. A look of realization dawned on her for a moment. "Is the really beautiful lady you want to interview that Tsunade person?"
"You're pretty sharp!" Jiraiya praised. "What about it?"
"She's one of the Sannin that you're part of, right, Ero-Sennin?" Hinata had told Natsumi the story of the Sannin after meeting Jiraiya for the first time since she did not know anything about them.
"So what about it?"
"How old is she?"
"The same as me."
"She's an old lady, then... How can she be beautiful?"
"You'll see for yourself when we meet her," he replied with a twinkle in his eye.
"So what kind of person is this Tsunade person?"
"You interested?"
"Yes."
"Let's see... In a word, she's unpleasant. Also, she gambles a lot, and she's well-known in various lands."
"Then we can find her easily since she's so famous."
"It's true that she's famous since she's known by the nickname 'Legendary Sucker'. But even if she's the Legendary Sucker, we probably can't find her immediately."
"Why?"
"She doesn't like aging, so she has probably changed her appearance with some sort of technique. She's in her fifties, but she likes her appearance to be around her twenties or so. On top of that, according to some rumors, she changes them randomly to her teens, twenties, thirties, forties... depending on the situation to run away from moneylenders."
"What's up with that? Sounds horrible."
"Tsunade has liked to gamble ever since she was young, but her luck and skills just plain suck. She's known as the Legendary Sucker because she's been duped out of her money by everone. And she borrows money and runs..." Jiraiya paused to chuckle to himself. "That brings back memories..."
"Stop enjoying your old memories!" Natsumi snapped. "So how are we supposed to find her?"
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "We'll probably have to take things slowly, but there are many ways of doing it."
"What do you mean we have to take it slowly? Hinata-chan can find her easily with her Byakugan." Hinata, who was content to simply listen while Natsumi asked the questions, perked up at the mention of her name.
"Tsunade knows to look out for that. Because no-one knows what her original appearance really is, even if Hinata did spot her through her special Henge, she wouldn't know that's her," he quickly shot down her suggestion. "We can only do that once we have made contact for the first time and Hinata knows what to look for."
"Huh? Really?" Natsumi was surprised to hear that and turned to Hinata for confirmation.
"What Jiraiya-sama said is true. If I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for, I can miss it even if I see it," Hinata supported Jiraiya's statement.
"Then we don't know how long it'll take..." Natsumi complained.
"We won't waste time, though," Jiraiya said. "I'll use that on the both of you as we travel."
"On us?"
"The time to make you strong... Training!" He watched as a look of confidence appeared on Natsumi's face and he visibly cringed when she took out the green jumpsuit from her backpack again.
"I'll wear this when we train!" Neither Jiraiya nor Hinata agreed with the jumpsuit's fashion value, but surely it would help with training like Guy said!
"Wait, wait, wait... Don't wear that, come on..." he tried to convince her to drop it for good. "I don't want to walk with someone wearing something like that."
"I'll only wear it for training!" she protested.
"I don't want you wearing that at any time!" he snatched the offending article out of her hands.
"Hey!" Her angry expression turned to horror as he used a minor Katon jutsu to burn it. "NO!" she wailed.
"It's for your own good, I promise," he told her. 'Good for your feminity, that is,' he added mentally. He would be terrifled if beautiful women started thinking the jumpsuit was a fashion craze. No, he had to keep the beauty of women pure from such monstrosities and he would be damned if he let his apprentice think otherwise! After sulking for a good ten minutes, Natsumi returned to the mood for training. "Don't be so hasty. This journey will be pointless unless we ask around for information on Tsunade as we train."
"Ask around for information? Where?"
"At this city," Jiraiya said as they arrived at their next stop, overlooking the city from the end of the road they were walking on. As they walked through the streets, Natsumi and Hinata were in awe at how lively the entire city was. "Playing is important, too. Get plenty of rest and then we can move on to training. The festival is going last a while, so we're going to stay here while it goes on. We're going to do our training here, too."
"All right!" Natsumi cheered as she took out her stuffed frog wallet from her backpack.
"You're pretty rich! You're as rich as a millionaire!" he praised her.
"I have a lot of money, since I saved up little by little with my missions," she told him as she rubbed her cheeks lovingly against her wallet. "Bye!"
"Wait, Natsumi!" he stopped her before she could leave. "I'm going to keep your wallet." He grabbed it out of her hands and held it out of her reach.
"What are you doing?" she demanded as she struggled to claim it back.
"You can use this much," he took out a few notes and handed them to her. She quickly complained about how little she got to spend. "Don't complain. You know that there's something called the three taboos of a ninja, right?"
"Three taboos of a ninja? What are those?" she asked. She never heard of such a thing and when she looked at Hinata who shook her head, she did not know about it either.
"You don't know? The three taboos of a ninja are the three desires that make a ninja go bad. The three desires are alcohol, women, and money. Though in your case, the second is men... or it can remain as women or both genders."
"Then it doesn't have much to do with us. We're below the legal age, so we can't drink alcohol. And I'm not really sure about this desire for men or women. And it took a lot of effort to save up money, so I don't want to use a lot of it."
"Fool! Don't take the desire for money lightly!" he scolded. "Once you start using it, you'll begin to use more! The magical power of money is quite scary. The person we're looking for, Tsunade, has nearly ruined her life because of it."
"You're easily tempted with the desire for women, Ero-Sennin," she retorted. "Besides, Hinata-chan taught me to always save up some money and not to spend too much of it if I don't have to. I won't spend all of my money in one day."
"I'm going to go ask around now," he ignored her and handed his backpack to her. "Take my pack for me. Even if you get lost, I have a toad summoned in there that can follow my scent or you can ask Hinata to locate me." Natsumi grudgingly accepted his terms and went off to have some fun with Hinata but not before sticking her tongue out at him childishly. 'They're still kids,' he smiled to himself as he saw them run off. Although they suspected he would break one of the taboos he just stated, they still allowed him to hold on to Natsumi's wallet without any argument. It showed they trusted him even with the less-than-admirable attributes of his personality and it pleased him. That was a must between any master-apprentice relationship. If either of them had put up more of an argument, he would not have minded and would have snitched just a small amount of money from Natsumi's savings. He told them to have fun, but that did not mean he could not have fun of his own. He would get his fun by spending all of Natsumi's money and purposely riling her up, watching her reaction for his entertainment. He had full intentions of returning the money back, of course. He was only teasing his cute little apprentice.
Natsumi moved around the various food stalls quickly while Hinata followed, buying whatever they fancied. They ended up buying quite a lot even for the both of them, but they managed to find a quiet spot just outside the city to enjoy their food.
"I think I ate too much..." Natsumi said, feeling a bit too stuffed. "How about you, Hinata-chan?"
"I'm alright. At least we didn't waste food," Hinata replied. It was quite an amount of food for two adolescent girls, but she could stomach more food in case Natsumi had leftovers which she did not.
"I wonder how everyone is doing," Natsumi mentioned, laying down on her back as she looked at the clear blue sky. Hinata brought her legs closer to her body and wrapped her arms around them, looking skywards as well.
"I'm sure they're doing fine, Natsumi-chan," Hinata said. "When we find Tsunade-sama, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun will be healed to perfect health."
"Yeah... We're going to train hard everyday and return home strong, won't we, Hinata-chan?" she grinned at her best friend.
"Yes, we will," she agreed.
"But before that, let's work off the food and have some fun!"
Together, they went off to play some festival games. Both of them got perfect scores on the target games though their throwing styles were very different. Natsumi threw with wide motions while Hinata was more graceful with her throws. They moved on to goldfish scooping but only Hinata had success in this game. She giggled at Natsumi's various facial expressions as she tried and failed to scoop a single goldfish, breaking the fragile scooping net each time. Natsumi just did not seem to be able to lift the net gently, resulting in the net tearing each time. She eventually gave up, pouting angrily but rather adorably to Hinata. When they left, they gave away the goldfish that Hinata won to a young child since they could not take care of a fish on their journey.
Natsumi only had enough money for one last stall left although Hinata volunteered to pay for anything else she wanted to do or buy. Natsumi decided that they had played enough and it was time to return to Jiraiya. Out of gratitude for the future training, they decided to buy him a treat as thanks. Their feelings of gratitude quickly went down the drain when they found him in an adult establishment surrounded by two young and beautiful women. They had crestfallen expressions on their faces and their jackets seemingly grew one size too big momentarily as one side slumped off their shoulders. Natsumi spotted her now-empty frog wallet on the table as it deflated its 'last breath'.
"Oh, girls. Did you enjoy all of the festival already?" Jiraiya asked, his face a little flushed from the alcohol he had consumed.
"Say all of the three taboos of a ninja to yourself again!" Natsumi screamed in his face as she stood on the table. "You broke all three in one go, you idiot!"
"Wait, Natsumi..." he tried to defend himself but she was not going to let him.
"I'm not going to wait!" she leaped on him and pounded her fists against him as he weakly defended himself. "You used all of the money I worked hard to save!" One of the treats Natsumi was holding flew out of her hand and landed on the expensive coat of an entering customer. It turned out the customer was a former Chuunin ninja of Iwagakure turned gangster, and demanded a ridiculous amount of money as reparation for the dirtied coat. Jiraiya nonchalantly disregarded the threat in front of him, pissing off the man.
"Natsumi, this is a good opportunity to show you a jutsu," Jiraiya said as he stood up and straightened his arm out with his palm open. "Watch carefully." A ball of pure chakra formed in his palm and he thrusted it towards the attacking man, sending him spiralling out of the establishment and crashing into a balloon stall that was on the opposite side.
"Wow!" both girls were amazed at the demonstration as Jiraiya apologized to the stall owner for destroying his stand. The defeated former Chuunin only then recognized who Jiraiya was and offered his wallet freely in fear. Jiraiya gave all the money in it to the owner to make up for the unintended destruction and to purchase all his remaining water balloons and rubber balls. The girls wondered what kind of jutsu it was when he told them to follow him for training. He led them to the forest outside of the city where Natsumi was eagerly waiting for her lesson.
"Here, it's a water balloon," Jiraiya tossed her a water balloon from the bag he was carrying.
"What about it?" Natsumi asked as she caught it.
"You watched that jutsu carefully, right?"
"Yes."
"What kind of jutsu did it look like?"
"It kind of looked like the Chidori, but it didn't have lightning in it and the enemy was rotating a lot after he got hit..." she pointed out what she managed to gleam from first observation. She wanted to mention that it kind of looked like a palm thrust but she knew better with her Juuken training and decided it was not a correct answer.
'It's good she made that connection, but she wasn't looking at the right place. I guess that's good enough,' he thought.
"It's also a seal-less jutsu, Natsumi-chan," Hinata added to her list, giving the answer that Jiraiya was really looking for.
"Oh yeah, that too!" Natsumi agreed, pretending she did not miss the most obvious feature of the jutsu.
"Yes, rotation is involved," Jiraiya said as he held a water balloon in his hand. They saw that he was rotating the water in the balloon without moving his hand. Before Hinata could activate her Byakugan and see what he was doing with his chakra, the balloon popped. He referenced the two walking exercises they had done before and the lesson required Natsumi to create a flow with chakra. Simply put, she had to use rotation to pop the balloon. He would tell her more details about the jutsu after she was able to complete the basics. First, she had to accumulate and maintain her chakra in her hand like the tree-walking exercise, then release a constant amount of chakra like the water-walking exercise. Lastly, she had to push her chakra into the water balloon and rotate the water. Those were the pointers needed to complete his lesson.
"I get it now! This training is to create a fast rotation inside the water balloon to pop it, right?"
"You're getting sharper," he praised. "Okay, we're going to train until night."
"Yes, sir!"
"Hinata, feel free to join in if you want. Although this jutsu is not compatible with you, not with the way you are now, you just might learn something from it," he offered Hinata.
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," Hinata was just glad that Jiraiya was allowing her to learn something even though the jutsu was not meant for her use.
***Break Line***
It did not take long for either girl to get the water inside the balloon to rotate. Natsumi was very pleased and was confident she could pop it, finding it easier than what she initially thought. Hinata, on the other hand, seemed more confused than anything else. She quickly noticed her water balloon was not acting the same way as Jiraiya's did when he showed them a demonstration. She then heard him say he was going to take a rest until either of them popped their balloon. Him taking a rest meant that he was not expecting them to do so in any short amount of time, which meant they were doing it wrong. Natsumi did not seem to realize this as she claimed she would pop her balloon before he could even start napping.
An hour had gone by and Jiraiya was getting drowzy from drinking his alcoholic beverage while waiting for them to pop their balloons when he was jolted back to full awareness by Natsumi's cheerful yell.
"Did you pop it already?" he asked.
"Not me..." Natsumi deflated a little but quickly cheered back up. "Hinata-chan did!"
"Show me," he said, noting that Hinata looked more dismayed than happy. She took another water balloon from the bag and concentrated. In a few seconds, the balloon starting rotating and stretching sideways before a ring of water seemingly sliced through it in half, elicting another cheer from Natsumi. It technically counted as popping the balloon by rotating the water inside, but Hinata knew it was not the correct method Jiraiya was looking for.
"This is wrong, isn't it, Jiraiya-sama?" she stated sadly, her voice almost a whisper.
"What are you saying, Hinata-chan? You did it!" Natsumi did not think anything was wrong. Hinata did pop it.
"Hinata is right. That's wrong," Jiraiya told them.
"What? You stinker! You just said to pop it using rotation, and she did!" she argued.
"I'll give you another demonstration to show you why I'm saying it's wrong." He took another water balloon and within seconds popped it. "You see it?"
"Hinata-chan's balloon didn't pop like that," she said.
"Good, you noticed. So keep trying to pop your water balloon like mine did. Until then, I'll be taking a nap." He paused for a moment, thinking about something. "Hinata, I'll show it to you again, but this time I'll do it slower so you can watch with your Byakugan. Think of it as a reward for making progress, but you're not allowed to tell Natsumi what it is you saw or how you did it if you manage to pop the balloon correctly."
"No fair!" Natsumi protested. "Why don't I get any hints for this?"
"Because you haven't made any progress," he smoothly countered. "Get back to trying to pop your balloon. Hinata, are you ready?"
"Yes," Hinata activated her Byakugan and watched the water balloon in his hand carefully. She saw his chakra rotating the water until... Her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw until the balloon popped.
"Did you watch my chakra carefully?" he asked and she nodded. "So you know what must be done. Now let's see you try it."
With renewed determination, Hinata redid the training but this time with her Byakugan active to watch her own water. She quickly found out it was so much harder to rotate the water in the way she saw in Jiraiya's balloon.
***Break Line***
"Geez... Why doesn't it pop?" Natsumi screamed at the same balloon she started with in her hand. Evening was beginning to fall and she had made no progress. Hinata was resting under a tree, thoroughly exhausted and was watching her with worry. Natsumi always had trouble controlling her chakra, and this was clearly a chakra control exercise. It was so advanced that she, who had very good control due to her Juuken training, had a huge difficulty in doing. She had completed the exercise earlier, but she had to use two hands to get the same result as Jiraiya did using only one hand. And as per his instructions, she could not tell Natsumi the secret behind the rotation.
"Oh, were you able to do it?" Jiraiya asked groggily, having been awoken by Natsumi's frustrated screams.
"Well, how should I explain...? I didn't quite do it, but..." she tried finding an excuse for her failure.
"Looks like I had a long sleep instead of a short nap," he mentioned, irking her because it was clearly a jab to her empty boasting earlier in the day.
"Hey, hey. How do I do this so that it'll pop?" she asked him directly since she was not allowed to ask Hinata.
"I told you that I can't give you any details until the balloon pops," he told her before deciding that he would give a smaller tip to her than what he gave to Hinata. "Fine. Normally, you're supposed to find out the trick by testing different methods over and over and master the know-how of the jutsu on your own." Natsumi nodded her head excitedly, listening attentively. "But I'll give you a little tip for this jutsu. Hinata, you listen too. Try rotating the water." Hinata got back to her feet and got a new water balloon for herself. "Right or left. Which direction did you imagine rotating the water?"
"Left/Right," the girls answered, Natsumi the former and Hinata the latter.
"Come here for a second," he gestured Natsumi forward. When she did, he put his hand and pressed down on the top of her head. He was surprised when she threw the water balloon at his face and violently shoved his hand that was on her head away.
"DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR!" she yelled in absolute fury as she jumped away, almost snarling at him.
"What...?" he muttered in a dopey manner as water dripped from his face.
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sama!" Hinata bowed repeatedly and apologizing on Natsumi's behalf. "Natsumi doesn't allow anyone but me to touch her hair! Please forgive her!"
"What's the story?" he asked, wiping his face. This was no ordinary reaction from Natsumi. This went far beyond simply losing her temper. If this was a trauma of some sort, he had to know for the sake of her apprenticeship.
"Natsumi-chan's hair is a symbol of our friendship. It's our lifelong vow to each other. Her twintails represent the both of us, connected to each other by an inseparable bond formed by our beliefs of each other. I wholeheartedly believe that Natsumi-chan will one day be Hokage, just as she wholeheartedly supports me as I work to improve myself as a person," Hinata explained with a smile.
"That's good and all, but hair is one of the worst things to make a vow over. Only one of you has that hair," he pointed out. He noted she was aware of that fact as her smle turned sad.
"Don't look down on us!" Natsumi yelled. "We will take care of this hair! We will protect our bond with our lives! No-one will take away this bond from us! That's a promise, and we don't go back on our words! That's our ninja way!" She glared defiantly at him, daring him to try and challenge her resolve.
"All right. I won't touch her hair again," he agreed. If there was one thing he knew about his apprentice, it was that she was fiercely loyal to her friends. He knew about how hard she fought for her teammates during the invasion. She went above and beyond for them, even for the one she had a dislike for. "Hinata, check the top of her head for me and tell me which direction her hair seems to swirl and I'll look at yours." After a moment of checking, she told him Natsumi's hair swirled to the right. "Just as I thought."
"What did you see from our heads?" Natsumi asked, having calmed down.
"The both of you have chakra that rotates clockwise, or to the right." He reviewed how chakra was molded within the two energies in their bodies, but added that everybody subconsciously rotated those two energies to mold chakra. Since Natsumi imagined a rotation opposite of what she naturally had, the flow of chakra would branch into two and repel each other, so the rotation of her water balloon remained stagnant and would not speed up. Hinata was just lucky she imagined the correct directional rotation when they started, but he added that her superior chakra control helped as well. "You're supposed to figure that out from your senses normally... especially you, Hinata," he pointed to said girl who he noticed had the look of someone learning something new. "The Hyuuga's Kaiten work on the same mechanics as this."
"I... I didn't know that..." Hinata admitted. It was a shock as well as a blow to her own self-esteem that a ninja who was not a Hyuuga, regardless whether said person was a Sannin or not, knew the basic mechanics of her family's technique that she did not even know about.
"But how did you find out we were clockwise-type?" Natsumi asked.
"The whorl of hair on your head," he replied as he put his hand on Hinata's head, causing her to squeak in surprise. If the whorl was clockwise, then the chakra rotated clockwise and vice-versa.
"So our whorls are clockwise?" she confirmed.
"Yeah. So when you imagine the rotation, imagine it rotating to the right."
"I was never concerned about such a thing before, so..."
"But this jutsu is very suited to you. You don't have to form any seals. You only need chakra, so you don't need to remember any tedious seal formations. Even an idiot can do this!"
"I'm not an idiot!" she snapped. "I'm the woman who's going to become the Hokage one day! This is going to be easy now that I know the trick. I can master this jutsu in three days!"
"Three days, eh? This is a ninjutsu that the Fourth Hokage left behind. It took three whole years for him to complete this jutsu. This technique's difficulty is ranked second highest out of six levels. It's an A-Rank jutsu. To master this jutsu, you need to go through a three-step training regimen. This water balloon popping exercise is the first step." He paused to let Natsumi absorb the serious atmosphere. "But then again, there's no point in explaining any more to a girl who can't even complete the first step. You try on your own, now. I'll go back to the city. I have to gather some information. What will you do?"
"I won't go back yet," she smiled at him before turning to Hinata. "Why don't you go with him, Hinata-chan? You already completed the first step, and you can't tell me anything. Maybe Ero-Sennin will teach you more stuff while he's gathering information."
"But..." Hinata did not want to leave Natsumi alone.
"Oh, you did? Show me," Jiraiya told Hinata who quickly complied. He whistled in admiration, impressed that she managed to get the first step down before a day was even over. While she had to use two hands, she did manage to get the balloon to pop in the same manner he did. It was far from perfectly mastering the first step, which was doing it with one hand, but it was still an admirable feat. When he first learned the jutsu directly from the Fourth Hokage, he had not considered using two hands at the time since the Fourth Hokage only used one. "Congratulations. Alright, you can come with me. Later then, Natsumi. Don't overwork yourself."
Hinata followed Jiraiya back to the city, only to quickly volunteer to find an inn for themselves when he was immediately lured into an adult establishment. After booking a room for an unspecified number of days, she returned to Natsumi who had not managed to pop her water balloon. She was still rotating the water in the same manner Hinata started out with but because of her poor chakra control, she could not rotate it fast enough to create the sharp ring of water Hinata used to first pop her balloon. Since Jiraiya was not around, she offered to tell Natsumi the secret but to her surprise, she refused. Natsumi wanted to prove to Jiraiya that she was a worthy apprentice, so she would get the jutsu down on her own. When the moon was high in the black night sky, she finally stopped for the night and they returned to the inn.
"Natsumi-chan..." Hinata called rather timidly after they changed into their pyjamas. "Can I... Can I sleep together with you?"
"Sure," Natsumi agreed without hesitation. "But why? Are we short of a futon?"
"No, there's enough but... Please?"
"Okay." They put their futon side by side and Hinata almost immediately leaned against Natsumi and hugged her arm for comfort. She was not afraid of the dark, but the psychological damage she received from Itachi made her imagine his Sharingan eyes on a random spot in the dark room several times and making her paranoid. Natsumi picked up on her anxiety and hugged her back.
"I'm here, Hinata-chan. I promise you'll be okay," she whispered soothingly.
"Thank you, Natsumi-chan," Hinata felt her body relax immensely as she cuddled against Natsumi's warmth. When Jiraiya returned from the adult establishment, he smiled at the two girls sleeping side by side peacefully.
***Break Line***
As Natsumi returned to the woods with the bag of water balloons and rubber balls to resume her training, Hinata stayed by Jiraiya's side. He did not seem to be seeking out the needed information to find Tsunade, judging from how he was speaking to random people about unrelated subjects. He was not asking anything about Tsunade like she expected but she was too timid to ask if he was really getting the information.
"Hinata, tell me what you know so far about your Byakugan. You don't have to tell me the specific details, just the basics," Jiraiya suddenly requested. She filled him in about the ability to see everything around her, the x-ray vision, the telescopic vision and how she can see chakra and the chakra coils. She also mentioned how it can see tenketsu but she was not able to do so yet. "Anything else?" he prompted. "Tell me how it would help you in a combat situation." Hinata was getting lost at this point. She did not have much experience in that regard. All she knew was that it helped her to locate incoming or hidden enemy reinforcements, and smoke bombs were rendered ineffective against her. "That's it? What about against ninjutsu or genjutsu? Does it help with anything?" She told him how she would be able to see the chakra build-up for ninjutsu as an early warning and genjutsu would be easily identified because it would reveal the enemy's invasive chakra and allow her to break her allies free immediately.
"Um... Jiraiya-sama? Did I say something wrong...?" Hinata asked when he slipped back into silence.
"Is all your clan teachings about the Byakugan only about its strengths?" he asked, sounding a little disappointed. "What about its weaknesses? Can you tell me about them?"
"W-Weaknesses? T-There is..." she stammered, feeling a slight sense of intimidation. She went silent when she could not think of anything. She did not know of any weaknesses except for prolonged activation. She didn't know if there were any blind spots for an activated Byakugan. "I... I don't know..." she admitted, feeling ashamed of herself.
"For one, genjutsu. If someone plants a genjutsu on you before you activate your Byakugan, they can fool what the Byakugan actually shows you. Didn't you learn anything from when Itachi disabled you with one?" Hinata remained silent at that. She had been and was still so scared by it, she did not even want to remember it, yet alone learn from it. "You're able to instantly detect anyone under the influence of a genjutsu. Anyone but yourself. Which in turn leads to you having a lack of experience when it comes to breaking a genjutsu that you yourself are under."
"But isn't that the individual's weakness rather than the Byakugan's?" she noticed the discrepency.
"Yes, but it's indirectly caused by the Byakugan as well. Don't you always activate your Byakugan before a fight?"
"Yes."
"So you essentially block out any genjutsu attempts on you from that point on, meaning genjutsu is never an issue while the Byakugan is active. At the same time, it means that if you get caught, you'll have a harder time breaking free compared to other people. Because you always activate it before you fight, you instinctively disregard genjutsu as a danger."
"I understand, Jiraiya-sama," she nodded, because that applied to her. She knew the possible dangers that genjutsu could inflict from Kurenai's lessons but somewhere at the back of her mind she had probably thought that as long as she had the Byakugan active, she would not get ensnared in one. Itachi had gotten her in his genjutsu before she had the chance to activate her Byakugan, so she had to keep in mind not to get fooled by the Byakugan's false sense of genjutsu security again.
"While you're with me, I want you to test around with your Byakugan and find out what can be considered as its weaknesses. If you can't, then work on the aspects of the Byakugan that you are good at. From Natsumi's match with Neji, it's clear that seeing the tenketsu is his strong point with his Byakugan. What about you? Do you have a strong point with your Byakugan?"
"I'll do my best to find it," she answered. "What would you have me... do..." She froze when Jiraiya gravitated himself to the same adult establishment he visited the day before. "I'll accompany Natsumi-chan now! Please excuse me!" She turned and hastily ran off to find Natsumi in the forest, her face burning with embarrassment. When she arrived at their training location, Natsumi was still rotating the water in the balloon and alternating between one and two hands.
"Pop... Pop. Pop, pop, pop!" Natsumi muttered under her breath. When she felt her chakra rotation slow down, she sighed in frustration and gave up on that attempt. She remembered clearly how the balloon was supposed to pop. It like was a minature explosion from within. She knew Hinata had far superior chakra control than her, and even she could not do it with just one hand yet. Using her best friend as a measuring stick, she decided to at least try and pop the balloon the same way Hinata first did, but she could not do that even with two hands.
"Natsumi-chan, you know that's wrong, right?" Hinata asked worriedly.
"I know that. I know I'm missing something. If I can just pop it like you did the first time, he'll give me a tip that can help me figure out the real trick!" she replied with determination as she started a new rotation.
Although worried for her, Hinata was nonetheless inspired to work harder. She could not be complacent with herself. Jiraiya had given her a passing grade, but it was not perfect. Natsumi was trying her best just to get another hint. She should at least try her best to get the perfect finish for the first step of the unknown jutsu they were training for. By the time night fell, neither had made any progress on their respective goals.
***Break Line***
"Damn it!" Natsumi cursed in frustration at herself. Her rotation had sped up and the balloon was making the strained stretching noise, but it never popped. It was already the third day! She could not afford to waste any time, let alone three years the Fourth Hokage spent developing the jutsu! She knew she was doing it wrong, but she did not know what was the difference between what she was doing and what Hinata was doing.
"Natsumi-chan, maybe you should take a rest from doing this exercise for a while?" Hinata suggested. She had an idea she believed could help and it would also settle a prior agreement the both of them had.
"I can't! I have to keep training!" Natsumi refused.
"No, not that. I mean I have an idea that might help you."
"I see," she stopped her current attempt at popping the balloon to hear what Hinata had to say.
"Well, I was thinking that if I teach you the Hakke Kuushou now, maybe you'll get some inspiration from it."
"You'll really teach me that?" her eyes sparkled with child-like excitement, elicting a giggle from Hinata.
"I did promise to teach it to you."
"I'm listening!"
"First, you have to form a shell of air in your hand," Hinata held out her open hand and Natsumi waited and saw... nothing.
"There's nothing there," she pointed out.
"Put your finger close." Natsumi did as she was told and slowly moved her index finger closely to poke something invisible.
"Oh, wait! I feel something!" she exclaimed in surprise when her finger passed through an invisible layer.
"That's the vacuum shell. You know that air is always around us, right? To form this, you have to use your chakra to make a shell around the air over your palm."
"How do you do that?"
"It's similar to what we're doing now."
"Rotation?" Natsumi grumbled out with a cute pout, making Hinata giggle. That was quickly becoming one of her less liked words.
"Not exactly, but this should be easier than popping the water balloon. All you have to do is move your chakra like it's covering a ball."
"...I don't get it," she said. How do you make your chakra move like that?
"Hmm..." Hinata took a rubber ball from the bag and held it in front of her. "Take this ball for example. Normally you fill it with air, right?"
"Yeah..."
"But this time, instead of putting compressed air inside, you use your chakra to make the ball around the compressed air instead. Can you... understand that?" Hinata asked a little hesitantly. She did not feel like she gave a good example. Natsumi squinted her eyes in thought and tilted her head in confusion several times before she brightened up.
"Yes, I got it!" she said.
"Can you explain so I know we both are on the same page?"
"Normally it's the ball that doesn't have air, but for this technique it's the air that doesn't have the ball! So we use our chakra to make that ball!"
"That's right, I suppose...?" Hinata replied with a sweat-drop. As utterly confusing as that explanation was, Hinata still managed to understand that Natsumi at least had the image of the vacuum shell correct. "And then it's just physical practice to shoot the 'ball' with a high-speed palm thrust. I'll show you." Hinata took a step back and entered her stance. "Hakke Kuushou!" she announced the name of the technique as she snapped her arm forward and released a blast of compressed air.
"Wow!" Natsumi was clearly in awe of the technique as she saw the atmosphere get disturbed by the rushing air as it impacted against a tree, cracking the bark. "That's amazing, Hinata-chan! Thank you!" she dove in to hug Hinata and rubbed cheeks with her.
"You're welcome, Natsumi-chan...!" Hinata exclaimed in a weird high pitch, her face red. She would never get used to this... Actually she was, but she could never help her face from flaming up whenever it happened. When she was let go, she heaved a small sigh of relief. "To make the 'ball' over the air, you have to imagine your chakra pressing the air into a big 'ball' and then shrink it until it's about the size of the water balloon. If it's not compressed enough, you won't get the blast of air."
"So... What I need to do is to use my chakra to make a big ball, make it smaller, and then make sure the air inside is tight enough, correct?" At Hinata's nod, Natsumi's confidence grew stronger. "Watch me! I'll have it down in no time!"
Hinata had no doubts on the physical part, except she hoped Natsumi would not hyperextend her elbow like her first attempt at the technique which was not anything like it was supposed to be. As for the chakra control part of creating the vacuum shell however...
"Hakke Kuushou!" Natsumi announced proudly as she snapped her arm out for the blast, except nothing was shot from her palm. Not even a small gust of wind. "Huh?"
"Natsumi-chan..." Hinata was dismayed. Her best friend's enthusiasm got the best of her and she tried to do the technique immediately without even going through the steps she was just told to follow.
"Ah..." she laughed sheepishly with an embarrassed blush, unknowingly making Hinata's heart skip a beat at how cute she looked in her point of view. "Can you watch me, Hinata-chan?"
"S-Sure!" she stammered her agreement, feeling like her ears were letting out steam. Taking a moment to quickly shake away that random thought, she activated her Byakugan to observe Natsumi's attempts. It was exactly as she suspected to be Natsumi's greatest hurdle. She did not have the appropriate level of chakra control for it yet. The shell was flimsy at best and she could not shrink it, meaning the air within her shell was not compressed at all. "Remember, it's similar to the first step of the jutsu you're learning. You have to rotate your chakra like a rolling ball to make the shell. You don't need to rotate it so fast like what we do with the water balloon. Try to find a rotation speed you're comfortable with."
Slowly but surely, Natsumi made progress at forming the shell. It was still very unstable, flunctuating anywhere between the shell being too thick to effectively shoot and being too flimsy to contain the compressed air with each attempt. The only constant was she could not shrink it. There were a few instances Hinata told her the shell was stable but when she tried to shrink it, the shell crumbled and the compressed air was lost. At least she could feel the sudden rush of air whenever her shell gave out. Hinata gave her a tip that she could keep rotating her chakra to make a bigger shell first and then slowly shift the rotation into a smaller one. As it got smaller, the control had to be stronger too because the air inside the bigger shell was being compressed.
By the end of the day and late into the night, Natsumi failed to get either the water balloon to pop or a small enough vacuum shell. She did manage to make progress with the Hakke Kuushou, though. She managed to continually make a stable shell but it was a little too big with the air uncompressed. It was only until she tried to shrink the shell that it crumbled and whatever air she managed to compress was lost. As for Hinata, her own training to perfect the water balloon exercise was met with failure too. Her only progress was popping the water balloon faster than before but still with two hands. They would make no further progress for the next three days.
***Break Line***
On the seventh day of Natsumi's attempt to pop the water balloon, the girls were startled awake from their sleep when Jiraiya's snoring got too loud. Needless to say, they were questioning if he really was gathering information on Tsunade's whereabouts since he had a stamp card that was filled in for six days straight and he stunk of alcohol. Deciding to leave him to his slumber, they took their baths and headed to the dining area for breakfast.
"It's time to eat!" Natsumi announced cheerfully, hyping herself for the training later. When she picked up her chopsticks however, they fell out of her fingers. "What the...?" It was then she noticed her hand was shivering. She made to pick them up again, and they fell again. She could not grip them.
"Natsumi-chan! Are you alright?" Hinata exclaimed in panic. That was definitely not normal. Activating her Byakugan, she saw the chakra coils in Natsumi's hands were spasming, which led to her hands shivering uncontrollably. It was the sign of overuse with insufficient rest. "Your chakra coils are hurt! You have to let them rest! Don't train today!"
"Geez!" she almost screamed in frustration. She trained for so hard so long that she injured her chakra coils, and she had made so little progress? It was infuriating and a huge damper to her spirit.
"Please, take a rest today. If you strain your body too much, you'll only end up doing worse," Hinata advised. Using her own chopsticks, she scooped up some rice of Natsumi's bowl and held it out in front of her mouth. "I'll feed you, so don't push yourself, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks, Hinata-chan," she agreed. It was embarrassing to know she overworked herself to the point she could not eat in a proper manner and had to be spoon-fed, but she was very touched. It made her even more grateful for Hinata's kindness.
After breakfast, they returned to their room to get the bag of balloons and balls only to find the inn owner's cat playing with one of the water balloons in the hallway. Deciding they could spare one water balloon, they watched the cat play with it as it rolled the balloon back and forth with its paws. When it suddenly popped, the cat meowed in fright and ran away.
"Wait. This is it!" Natsumi had an epiphany. "I think I got it, Hinata-chan!" she told Hinata excitedly as she quickly ran ahead to get a water balloon from the bag.
"Did you really get it?" Hinata asked as Natsumi tried a whole different method of rotating the water inside the balloon. She watched as Natsumi held the balloon in her left hand, and in her right hand, she gathered enough chakra for it to be visible to the naked eye and rotated it. She pushed the chakra in her right hand into the balloon and repeated it several more times from different locations. Hnata smiled at the sudden progress, happy for her friend. "Natsumi-chan, you found out the trick!" And when the balloon popped in the same manner as Jiraiya and her water balloon did, her smile grew bigger. "You did it!"
"Alright!" Natsumi whooped with joy. "All I needed to do was to make many rotations in the balloon so the water inside moved around so much it popped!"
"Congratulations, Natsumi-chan!"
"I rule!" she flashed Hinata the victory sign. "Now to show Ero-Sennin!" When she did though, Jiraiya dozed off in the middle of her demonstration.
"Sorry, sorry... I was tired from the information gathering from the past few days and nights..." he gave an excuse as he took his breakfast at the dining area.
'That's really doubtful...' both girls sweat-dropped.
As he sipped his bowl of soup, he was hiding his proud and pleased face from them. He had indeed been paying rapt attention to Natsumi's demonstration and was impressed with the unorthodox method of popping the balloon. It was a weird yet interesting idea. It was clearly a shortcut for overcoming her terrible chakra control, but he would give her a passing grade for coming up with it.
"Yes, yes. Good job for coming up with the idea. It's all thanks to me," he said.
"As if!" Natsumi huffed in irritation before the cat came by. She picked it up and explained how the way it played with the water balloon helped her realize the method to popping the water balloon in the way he wanted. It had to be done with multiple rotations spinning at the same time. "But then, how did Hinata-chan manage to pop her balloon the first time?"
"I too didn't know the answer is to make multiple rotations at the same time. The first time, I was simply rotating my chakra very quickly in one direction. I rotated it so fast that the water became sharp enough to cut the balloon," Hinata explained. "It was only after Jiraiya-sama showed us the second time that I realized what really needed to be done. But I still can't do it with one hand."
"You've completed the first step for now," Jiraiya told her. "But in terms of mastering it, Hinata is better than you. So, Hinata."
"Yes!" Hinata responded.
"Other than your Byakugan, feel free to master the first step. As I said before, the completed jutsu is beyond you for now but mastering the first step will still help you in improving your chakra control. So work on it as well and aid Natsumi too. It isn't so much of an issue since Natsumi has a lot more chakra to use than you, but do not attempt to do it Natsumi's way. She is using a lot more chakra to get the same result as you. You are only using your second hand to add more rotations to the chakra you already inserted into the water balloon with your first hand, correct?"
"Yes."
"Natsumi is adding more chakra into the water balloon each time she makes another rotation. She's making herself a shortcut by expending more chakra, so don't do it with Natsumi's method. You can't afford to waste all the additional chakra."
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama."
"Yeah, whatever. I still did it! Do you want me to show you again?" Natsumi offered, only to wince in pain from her throbbing hands.
"Natsumi-chan!" Hinata quickly went to her side and inspected her chakra coils with her Byakugan. If only she could see the tenketsu, she would be able to slow the flow of chakra into her hands drastically or even close the tenketsu so her chakra coils could heal faster. She tried pouring more chakra into her Byakugan to forcefully increase its intensity and maybe spot the tenketsu but all she achieved was a terrible burning ache in her eyes. With little else she could do, she shut off her Byakugan and massaged Natsumi's hands and wrists to relieve some of the pain.
'Overuse of chakra must be hurting her chakra coils now. But the next step will not be so easy on them,' Jiraiya noted, knowing the second step will cause even more damage to Natsumi's chakra coils.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
Guy presents Naruto with the green jumpsuit.
Canon: Jiraiya convinces Naruto not to wear it on any occasion and we don't know what happens to it after that.
My version: Natsumi believes she will look different than Guy so she changes into it to prove Jiraiya wrong. It turns out to be too eye-catching at certain areas of her body for Hinata so she convinces Natsumi that it's a bad idea to wear it. Later on, instead of convincing her, Jiraiya just grabs the jumpsuit and burns it for the sake of her feminity. I mean, why not? We don't know what happens to it. Might as well just burn it.
Naruto asking about Tsunade.
Canon: Jiraiya tells Naruto about Tsunade's nickname as the Legendary Sucker and how she's famous in various countries and it's not easy to locate her because of her Henge.
My version: The same until Natsumi brings up Hinata's tracking skills which Jiraiya mentions is no help because no-one knows what Tsunade true appearance looks like.
After Jiraiya gets Naruto started on the first step of learning the Rasengan.
Canon: Naruto does not make any progress until Jiraiya tells him about the direction his chakra is supposed to rotate in, where he makes very minor progress. Even then, he sticks to using only one rotation until the cat gives the answer to him.
My version: Hinata has very good chakra control, possibly the second best among the Genins, just behind Sakura. So even though Natsumi and Hinata both start out with just one rotation, she manages to get a different result by spinning the water so fast it turns sharp like a pressurized water cutter. At the same time, she knows it's wrong which Jiraiya confirms and gives her a second demonstration and allows her to use her Byakugan to see what's really going on inside the balloon and ultimately succeed. Because of Hinata's initial partial success, Natsumi realizes much earlier that she's missing something but persists on using only one rotation like Naruto to earn another hint rather than not knowing at all the entire time. She still gets the answer from the cat, though.
Jiraiya tells Naruto about how chakra subconsciously rotates in the body and how one can know about which direction it rotates in by the whorl on one's head.
Canon: Jiraiya puts his hand on Naruto's head to take a look and tell him which direction his whorl goes.
My version: The moment Jiraiya puts his hand on Natsumi's head, she snaps at him with intense fury and he learns about the lifelong promise she made with Hinata and how her hair is the symbol of that promise. In return, he checks Hinata's whorl while she checks Natsumi's whorl.
Naruto loses his grip on his chopsticks during breakfast.
Canon: Naruto gets frustrated and eats with his bare hands.
My version: Hinata is there, so she offers to help feed Natsumi to avoid a messy situation.
Jiraiya thinks about the unique way Naruto completes the first step with.
Canon: Jiraiya mentally praises Naruto's approach to solving the mystery behind the first step.
My version: The same, but Jiraiya goes on to tell Hinata not to follow Naruto/Natsumi's method in completing the first step as I believe he/she uses more chakra to compensate for the lack of his/her chakra control. Jiraiya believes Hinata has the capability to fully master the first step of the Rasengan, which is making the chakra rotate randomly in various directions using only one hand. Currently, Hinata is using both hands to rotate.
Extra Scene 1: Jiraiya discusses with Hinata about the Byakugan and he is not pleased with her meager knowledge of it. He discusses with her the Byakugan's possible weakness against genjutsu and instructs her to work on finding more weaknesses and to figure out which aspect of the Byakugan she excels in and to improve upon it.
Extra Scene 2: Hinata gets Natsumi started on her Hakke Kuushou training. According to the Naruto wiki, the Hakke Kuushou is done by firing a vacuum shell of compressed air with a high-speed palm thrust. Since it's invisible, I took liberty in writing in my own terms how a beginner learns it. Since it's a vacuum shell, the easiest mental image I can think of is a ball. As for the compressed air, I'm putting it as the initial shell is bigger at first and thus contains more air. Then the user makes it smaller, using chakra control to maintain the shell as the air is compressed and trying to escape its tight container by bursting explosively.
***Break Line***
The Rasengan training starts, and Natsumi is learning the Hakke Kuushou on the sidelines since Hinata feels the way to practice the two is similar enough. I honestly wanted to end the first two steps of the Rasengan training in one go but realized it was getting too long. Hinata has more impact in the Rasengan training during the second step, so I had to end it here.
I also put in a small scene that is related to a certain Shippuuden omake where Hinata outeats Naruto in an eating contest that is about his favorite food, no less. It doesn't go that far here, though.
As for Hinata completing the first step of Rasengan training in one day, I feel that the first step is purely about chakra control, and she's really good in control. It's just putting chakra in the water and then rotating it. That's it. It doesn't require much chakra at all, just a lot of control. She hasn't mastered it yet, of course, since it's supposed to be done with only one hand but Jiraiya tells her to work on it since it's very good as a chakra control exercise even if the Rasengan is not compatible with her. At least not with the way she currently is.
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!