Hinata watched Natsumi train with a greater ferocity ever since Tsunade's assistant, Shizune, told them about Tsunade's history and why she was so disgusted with the title of Hokage. Her little brother and lover both aspired to be Hokage, and both died right after Tsunade gifted the necklace she had to them. With those deaths, both Tsunade and Shizune believed that necklace only allowed Tsunade to wear it. Anyone else who tried would inevitably die soon after, so it was something Tsunade should not wager with.
Natsumi ignored all warnings to slow down from Hinata, determined to prove that a rumored necklace of death would not stop her from working for her dream and that she would not die when she won it. She refused to even budge from her training spot, forcing Hinata to make trips to the city and back just to make her stop and eat something to restore her energy as well as bringing along their backpacks. To her great surprise, Natsumi's chakra coils had amazingly adapted to the strenuous chakra output for her Rasengan training. Even when she was left unable to move and shaking all over, her chakra coils showed no signs of straining to the bursting point like before. This assessment was made after four days of non-stop training, which made it even more amazing.
"It's not working... Damn it... Damn it..." Natsumi panted with huge exhaustion, taking in huge gulps of air. "I'll get it tomorrow..."
"I think you should take a step back first, Natsumi-chan," Hinata suggested.
"No! I'll definitely prove that old hag wrong! I'm definitely not going to die until I become Hokage!" she refused.
"Let's work on the Hakke Kuushou first, alright? You're still thinking about what Shizune-san told us about Tsunade-sama's past, didn't you?" Hinata predicted correctly when Natsumi gave a slow nod. "I think you're being distracted by that."
"...Alright. I'm counting on you tomorrow, Hinata-chan," she relented, feeling immense fatigue crashing down on her when her adrenaline from training wore off.
***Break Line***
After breakfast the next morning, Natsumi was pumped and raring to go, ready and waiting for Hinata's instruction.
"Okay, Natsumi-chan, remember what Jiraiya-sama said for the third step of the Rasengan?" Hinata asked to make sure Natsumi was on track.
"I have to use all 100% of the abilities I learned from the first two steps and retain it in a thin layer," Natsumi answered.
"That's right. It's the same for the Hakke Kuushou but with much, much less chakra. Let's start out slower today, alright? If you can master this technique, I think the Rasengan is not too far ahead."
"Alright! Let's give this a go!" Natsumi started gathering chakra, but four days of straight Rasengan training made her automatically output so much chakra that it completely replaced the compressed air that was supposed to be in the shell.
"Stop, Natsumi-chan! That's too much!" Hinata exclaimed.
"O-Okay!" she quickly reduced her chakra output but that destabilized the shell and scattered the gathered chakra. "Damn it! One more time!"
"Wait, calm down, Natsumi-chan. Don't be hasty and don't get frustrated. Calm down and take deep breaths," Hinata advised. "When you're ready, concentrate all your efforts on the shell. Concentrate on the chakra control first. Use as little as you can first, then slowly build it up."
Natsumi took one final exhale and focused. Concentrate on the shell first. Forget about using a lot of chakra. Control came first. She visualized the invisible shell and started shrinking it slowly. She only increased her chakra output when Hinata told her her shell was beginning to crumble from the strain of containing the compressed air. The trouble began here for her. She always, always, put in too much chakra, turning the shell into a ball of visible chakra, making it too 'heavy' to be shot. Even if she did manage to fire it, it would have lost its biggest advantage of being an invisible blast of air.
By the time evening fell, Natsumi had made little progress with the technique. Whereas before the shell was fluctuating between too thick and too flimsy but still invisible, now it was always too thick and visible. It was as if her chakra control became even worse than before.
"Why...? Why can't I get either of them right?" Natsumi groaned in frustration, but far less fatigued than the previous four nights.
"At least you know the feeling of it when I tried to guide you, right?" Hinata asked, trying to lift her spirits.
"I guess..." Natsumi paused, suddenly recalling something. Her Kage Bunshin no Jutsu... When she was training for that, she did not perform it successfully either until she succeeded by a fluke. After that, it was just her trying to get the same 'feeling' again. "Hinata-chan, do you think you can do the technique on my hand?"
"Huh? On your hand?" Hinata repeated, confused at the sudden idea.
"I was just thinking that if I hold on to the proper thing, I'll remember the feeling and can aim for it!"
"We can try, I suppose..." Hinata was a little hesitant because she never really tried to hold on to the shell. Nonetheless, she formed it flawlessly over Natsumi's open hand. It destabilized immediately as soon as Hinata dropped her control over it to let it rest on Natsumi's palm, exploding with a long bang and making both girls scream in surprise as they fell on their bottoms by the huge rush of escaping air. "Sorry, Natsumi-chan! I'll hold on to it properly this time!" she apologized as she helped her tired friend up. Natsumi brushed it aside as a simple mishap as she prepared to hold it again. Hinata made sure she kept her control on the completed vacuum shell as she placed it over Natsumi's hand.
"...Okay, I think I can remember the feeling of it now," Natsumi said after some time. "Can I try holding on to this?"
"Alright. I'll slowly pull back on the chakra control, and you put in your own chakra, alright?" Hinata told her. "On three. One... Two... Three!" She removed her hands to allow the vacuum shell to function completely under Natsumi's chakra control. She watched closely with her Byakugan as Natsumi injected her own chakra into the quickly crumbling shell to reinforce control. She fought to keep it stabilized but it exploded anyway, startling both girls again.
"I almost got it that time! I can do this!" Natsumi got right back up and starting focusing to form the vacuum shell again. This time, she managed to keep it stabilized right until the very end, where it started crumbling and she was at her limit of chakra control. It exploded again, blasting her face hard with air. "Almost there!" She tried again. When Hinata warned her of the failing shell again, she used her left hand to try and force more control over it.
"You... You got it, Natsumi-chan!" Hinata exclaimed happily. "But you should shoot it quickly! It's going to explode again!"
With a battle cry, Natsumi shot her cupped hands forward, launching the rapidly deteriorating vacuum shell at a tree branch. She was in better physical condition than Hinata was when she first learned the technique, so she managed to shoot it successfully on her first try, turning the branch into a mess of twigs and splinters.
"Alright... Alright! Yes, yes, yes!" Natsumi cheered with a loud whoop and grabbing Hinata into a tight hug, rubbing their cheeks together. "I did it! I did it! And it's all thanks to you, Hinata-chan! I love you so much!"
'I love you...?' Hinata's mind only registered those words and completely misinterpreted them. Of course Natsumi only said that in the heat of the moment and she should have understood that. However, her brain decided to take those words in the complete other direction and turn them into meaning something far too intimate for her mind to handle.
"Ah, Hinata-chan?" Natsumi paused in her celebrations when Hinata's head slumped lifelessly to the side. "Hinata-chan?" she called again, shaking the unconscious girl. "Hey, what happened, Hinata-chan?" When she got no response, she turned hysterical. "Oh no! I didn't think I hugged you that hard! Hinata-chan, come on! Wake up!"
***Break Line***
Tsunade had only just arrived at Natsumi's training grounds to hear Natsumi screaming hysterically for her friend to wake up. She had only planned on just dropping by to see if Natsumi was even attempting to keep her word, which the destruction of the training grounds proved she was. But her screaming in great worry for her friend, who she was sure was not part of the bet, stirred her instincts as a medic-nin into action.
"Why are you screaming like that?" she feigned ignorance as she announced her presence to Natsumi.
"Oh, great timing! You're a doctor, right? Can you help her? Please!" Natsumi ran up to her, not even questioning why she was there in the first place.
"Put her down and I'll inspect her," she instructed. From first glance, Hinata did not seem like she needed any healing, but it would not hurt to run a small check.
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing!" Natsumi demanded when she saw Tsunade's hand going for Hinata's jacket zip.
"Removing her jacket. Bulky clothes get in the way of healing," she replied, an eyebrow raised at the sudden defensiveness for her friend.
"Are you sure about that?"
"I'm the doctor, not you. So be a good girl and watch quietly," she told her irritably and unzipped the jacket to open it apart. It was completely obviously to Tsunade why the girl would wear such a cumbersome jacket that was only suited for winter. She glanced over to Natsumi and took note of her over-sized tracksuit as well. "You embarrassed about your size too?"
"Huh? What size?" Natsumi asked.
"The size of your breasts, brat," she said dryly, mentally rolling her eyes at how oblivious the blonde girl was. She watched as Natsumi unzipped her own jacket to take a look at the noticeable swell of her breasts on her t-shirt. After looking at her own pair and looking at Hinata's pair, she zipped it back up.
"Hinata-chan's are bigger," she replied. "Is it such a big deal? We're pretty small compared to you. Yours are so much bigger."
"Whether it's a big deal or not depends on who you ask. It probably is for your friend here. And you should know that the both of you have big bust sizes for your age. Most girls your age are in the early stages of breast maturity." Putting her fingers over Hinata's neck for a pulse, she could immediately tell something was off. There was an irregularity with the rate of pulses. "Little girl, what severe injury did your friend suffer from recently?"
"She took a really hard Juuken hit directly to her heart," Natsumi answered bitterly, but still surprised that Tsunade even knew Hinata had suffered a severe injury. "But that was about two months ago."
"Figures. Only a Hyuuga can cause a lasting heart injury like this."
"Why? What's wrong with Hinata-chan? Is she still going to have a heart problem?" Natsumi started panicking.
"Not anymore," Tsunade replied calmly. Her hands lit up with a bright green aura and directed her healing chakra to Hinata's heart, fixing her lingering injury completely. Whoever treated her when she first suffered the heart injury did so hastily and left it in an unsatisfactory condition to Tsunade. Natural recovery came after the major issue had been resolved, not during the middle like they had done with this girl. Judging by the incomplete treatment, she was brought back from death's door with battlefield treatment. This was definitely an injury that needed hospitalization and she should still be in hospital. Why was she already discharged and freely moving around, and on a mission at that? Tsunade could already guess Hinata had gone through a relapse or came close to having one between the time of her discharge and now.
"Thanks," Natsumi said with complete honesty. She really thought Hinata was back in the danger zone of dying. "Thanks for healing Hinata-chan. You'll heal Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke too, right?"
"They're in Konoha, right? No promises," she answered.
"Then I'll just have to win our bet. But for now, thanks."
"Thank your luck then. Just hope that you haven't used it all by the deadline."
***Break Line***
The next day, Natsumi and Hinata excitedly experimented with the Hakke Kuushou. It was made clear that Hinata could hold on to the vacuum shell for a very long time, while Natsumi had to shoot hers immediately. Maintaining it when the technique was completed was beyond her chakra control ability. They figured out that Hinata could actually provide stability for Natsumi's shell by mixing their chakra together before Hinata decided it was more effort than actually necessary. The Hakke Kuushou was meant to be a quick attack from a distance, and combining efforts to make just one shell was too much of a waste. There was in fact a technique that combined two of them, called the Hakke Kuuhekishou. It could be performed by a single individual, but it was taxing in terms of concentration because they had to maintain control of the vacuum shell on both their hands at the same time. It took them the entire afternoon to master the coordination needed for the two-person combination.
"Now that I've finally mastered the Hakke Kuushou, the Rasengan is next!" Natsumi boasted confidently. "I'll have it mastered before the week is even close to over!"
"Um, Natsumi-chan? Today is the sixth day... and it's already evening," Hinata informed her meekly, not wanting to rain on her best friend's parade. Natsumi's loud exclamation of shock made her feel slightly guilty about reminding her how little time she had left. Natsumi got over her shock fairly quickly and returned to her determined mood, ready to resume her training.
"I'll definitely get this by the end of today!" she swore after three hours of continuous failures, making yet another spiral scar on a dead tree with an imperfect Rasengan which quickly dispersed upon contact. She knew where her problem was. She could rotate her chakra randomly and she could put out all the chakra needed, but she could not maintain both at their highest capacities at the same time. She could not contain her chakra in the perfect spherical shape it was supposed to be in. Her best effort so far was just a small hole before she was unable to hold it together. Looking at Hinata who was giving her a look of complete support, she realized she had one thing left she did not try. If they could combine their efforts into creating a stable vacuum shell for her to hold for the Hakke Kuushou, that meant the same should apply for the Rasengan. She had not asked initially because she believed she had improved to the point of getting the Rasengan down on her own. "Hey, Hinata-chan! I need your help!"
"What is it?" she asked as she came closer.
"I just thought of something! Maybe we can work together to get a perfect Rasengan!"
"You mean like how we did for the Hakke Kuushou?"
"Yeah, exactly like that! I'll produce the chakra, and you provide the control!"
"But isn't the Rasengan supposed to be done alone?"
"I know, but at least I can get the feeling for it! It's also helping you, Hinata-chan! Maybe you'll get the used to the feeling as well! I mean, right now you can't do it because you don't have the chakra for it yet, right? After this, maybe you can tell just how much chakra you need for a Rasengan!"
"O-Okay!" Hinata did not think twice about offering her help. Natsumi focused her chakra into her right hand, materializing visible chakra that resembled a clear blue flame. Hinata put one hand over the chakra with a little hesitance. She put the usual effort needed to burst a water balloon but she was surprised when the rotations were slow. The chakra was only just forming into a sphere. It was not much trouble for her to get it to rotate at high speeds, but she was surprised at the effort needed to spin so much chakra like that. Considering how poor Natsumi's chakra control was, Hinata had a very strong reminder just how hard it was to master the Rasengan, especially if it was meant to be done with just one hand.
"Is it ready yet?" Natsumi asked, watching the sphere in her hand carefully. It did not seem or feel any different than all the other times she tried on her own.
"Just a little more," Hinata replied, shaking her head. Her Byakugan revealed that it was not stable yet. It did not have the shell needed to keep its stability. While carefully manipulating her chakra to form a shell around the chaotic sphere, she made sure to keep the rotations going at the same time. When she was done, she was startled when Natsumi made a sudden noise as she looked at the Rasengan in her hand with great surprise. "What's wrong, Natsumi-chan?"
"I don't know. My chakra suddenly became... easy to hold," she said, unable to properly explain what she was feeling. "Did you manage to make it stable?"
"I think so..." she replied, a little uncertain if it would remain stable. It seemed like it was holding up well according to her Byakugan. "Should we try it out?"
"Okay," Natsumi nodded her head. "Here I go!" Even though she was fully expecting a complete success or at least a better result than all her previous attempts, she was still caught off-guard at the resounding success of the Rasengan she was holding. She managed to grind it into a tree's trunk from front to back without it dispersing uselessly. Even as the top half of the tree was sent skyward and away from them, she was still in the pose of slamming the Rasengan into it and in shock. They had done it. They had completed the Rasengan! Fighting away her shock but unable to keep her excitement and happiness contained, she ran back to Hinata with a huge smile.
"It was a great success!" Hinata had a similar smile on her face, but it was one of pride for her friend rather than excitement.
"Let me try one more time!" Natsumi said, producing a Kage Bunshin. With a clone, she could focus completely on supplying the chakra while the clone could focus completely on rotating her chakra. It should work! It had to work! She did the same thing again, producing only her chakra in her right hand, while the clone used both her hands to rotate the chakra as well as make the shell. When it was completed, the clone dismissed itself and both girls could only stare at the completed Rasengan in wonder. "This is it... A perfect Rasengan!" Natsumi cheered, nearly bursting with joy.
"Amazing! It's not destabilizing at all!" Hinata saw the Rasengan differently. When Natsumi formed the shell and stopped adding chakra to it, the rapid rotations just kept on going without any input. Unlike the Hakke Kuushou, Natsumi was not struggling to maintain the shell. It appeared as though the jutsu was sustaining itself through its own power the moment the shell to keep it stable was made. "You did it, Natsumi-chan! You successfully mastered the Rasengan!"
"Yeah! Am I awesome or what?" she bragged for a moment until she remembered she was supposed to do this alone, with no clones, and with one hand. "I mean, I can do it, but to say that I've mastered it is..." she trailed off into uneasy laughter as she recalled her chakra back from the Rasengan since she was not using it. Hinata quickly realized what she was trying to say.
"Yes, I guess you're right," she agreed, to which Natsumi let out a sigh of defeat. "But I think it's really amazing that you managed to perform the jutsu correctly, even if you had to do it by other means," she added, not wanting to undermine her best friend's efforts.
"Yeah... Yeah, you're right!" Natsumi was cheered up by Hinata's encouragement. "Who cares what Ero-Sennin thinks! I did it!"
"This is...!" they heard someone gasp in shock from nearby them. Turning to the sound, they saw Shizune looking at the training spot with destroyed trees and several trenches carved into the ground, all over the course of six days.
"Good evening, Shizune-san," Hinata greeted the assistant with a polite bow.
"What happened here?" Shizune asked in wonder. "Did you do all this, Natsumi-kun?"
"Of course! You didn't really think I'd just give up, did you?" Natsumi replied with a smirk before wincing in pain.
"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly, noticing Natsumi taking particular care of her right hand. "Let me take a look." She was shocked for a second time, seeing the terrible chakra burns on her palm. "We have to treat this! Let's head back to the inn and wait for Tsunade-sama!"
"What? But I'm fine! I don't need any treatment!" she protested.
"I insist! Never underestimate any injury!" she snapped at Natsumi, stopping any further protests and dragging her along. Hinata quickly gathered their belongings and followed them back.
They did not have to wait long for Tsunade to return from wherever she went for the night. She quietly checked on Natsumi's condition and found that in addition to having chakra burns on her right hand, her physical condition had gotten weak from insufficient rest. It would take about two days of complete rest for her to return to peak condition. The diagnosis resulted in Hinata worriedly berating Natsumi for ignoring her warnings to rest and the latter to sheepishly apologize.
"It's just as Jiraiya said... I don't know why I made this ludicrous bet," Tsunade suddenly said. "Why did someone like me get so heated up? I feel stupid."
"It's because you thought betting against me would be easy! Well, guess what! That necklace is mine!" Natsumi pointed to her necklace in a victorious pose.
"Then show the Rasengan to me tomorrow. I don't want you using your current condition as an excuse when you fail to do it now."
"Fine! Just prepare your bags for when we head back to Konoha tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow... Please don't go tomorrow," Shizune spoke up in a pleading manner. Natsumi was about to retort to that when Hinata hushed her and shook her head, signalling her to just listen for the moment. When Shizune asked why Tsunade was not answering her, the two girls realized she was not addressing Natsumi at all when she first spoke. "If you are going to go..."
"What are you going to do?" Tsunade asked with an eerie calm.
"I will stop you, even if it costs me my life," Shizune answered. That sent warning bells through the two girls who quickly stood back in case of a physical altercation between the two women.
"Shizune, do you know who you're talking to?" In the blink of an eye, Tsunade was already standing beside Shizune who crumpled to the ground suddenly unconscious.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you old hag!" Natsumi screamed in fury at the unjustified assault of an ally. She expected scuffling of some sort, not an attack meant to incapacitate the other. Tsunade ignored her as she turned to leave the room, causing her to charge forward to exact revenge for Shizune. Despite not possessing the Byakugan or even turning to look at her, Tsunade dodged her wild punch by swerving to the side and delivering a quick chop to the back of her neck. Natsumi was knocked out just as quickly as Shizune did.
"Natsumi-chan!" Hinata gasped out in worry. When she realized her voice attracted Tsunade's attention, she drew back with fear which was very clear for the Sannin to see.
"Tuck your friend in bed," Tsunade instructed as she broke eye contact with the terrified girl. Hinata slowly and cautiously made her way to Natsumi in case she tried to pull something, but she just opened the door to leave. She did not want to take any chances of being observed, so when she knew Hinata was crouched over her friend, she swiftly turned around and jabbed her finger at the vulnerable spot of the shoulder just behind the collarbone. Even if Hinata was on guard, no Genin could ever hope to prevent her actions. With her strength, it was child's play for her to render someone unconscious with a single jab to the right spot. Hinata slumped over Natsumi unconscious as well. Because Hinata was more of a casualty than an active participant in trying to stop her, Tsunade took a few seconds to heal the bruise on her shoulder that was forming and deposited her on the bed. She ignored the other two females as she left the room.
Assured that all her companions were out like a light whether by drugs or brute force, she went to her own room to contemplate her answer for the next morning. After six days of troubled thoughts and with no-one around her to influence her decisions, she finally was able to think with great clarity. Before she proceeded to go to sleep, she made her decision and vowed to go through with it tomorrow, no matter how painful it was to make.
***End Of Chapter***
Differences
Tsunade's visit to Naruto's training spot.
Canon: She watches Naruto's training quietly.
My version: I made her arrive at the tail end of Natsumi's Juuken training, so she doesn't know about it. She shows herself because she thought an accident has happened that requires attention when she heard Natsumi's screaming worriedly, but comically, for Hinata.
The end of Naruto's isolated training.
Canon: Naruto fails to complete the Rasengan by the end of his isolated training and gets brought back to the inn by Shizune.
My version: Natsumi remembers how she learned the Kage Bunshin and applies it to her training. She successfully learns the Hakke Kuushou and the combination variation of it with the aid of Hinata. She eventually asks Hinata if she can aid her the same way she did for the previously mentioned techniques and successfully completes the Rasengan with her, and then with the help of a Kage Bunshin. Shizune picks them up soon after.
After Tsunade inspects Naruto's condition.
Canon: Tsunade knocks out Shizune and leaves.
My version: Natsumi is not unconscious from severe exhaustion and is awake at the time when Shizune threatened to stop Tsunade. When Shizune is knocked out, she is angered at Tsunade's treatment of her assistant and tries to attack her but instead gets knocked out as well. Hinata is frightened by what happened, but gets tricked into lowering her guard and gets knocked out too.
Extra Scene 1: After successfully performing the Hakke Kuushou, Natsumi showers her affection on Hinata and in the height of her joy, she says words that Hinata completely misinterprets and faints from embarrassment. That causes Natsumi to start screaming for her to wake up and attracts Tsunade's attention. Tsunade decides to put on a show for her by diagnosing Hinata but ends up finding a real problem that has not been completely fixed and treats her.
Extra Scene 2: After perfecting the Hakke Kuushou with some experimentation with Hinata, Natsumi remembers how she learned the Kage Bunshin by 'feeling'. She asks Hinata to help her with the rotation of the Rasengan while she concentrated on the chakra in a hopeful bid for success and that she can remember the 'feeling' of a proper Rasengan. Upon achieving success with Hinata, she tries again with her Kage Bunshin and gets success again.
***Break Line***
Next chapter is the Sannin fight! I know I said last chapter this one would be the conclusion, but I have put in more focus on the six-day training and felt like it would lose that if I put in the concluding fight in the same chapter.
In any case, the six-day isolated training is the perfect time for me to let Natsumi finally finish learning the Hakke Kuushou because in this fanfic, I described the Hakke Kuushou as being similar to the Rasengan in terms of how the technique is performed. With that out of the way, my attention shifts to the Rasengan and my issue with how Naruto successfully performs it for the first time.
I know Naruto achieves his Rasengan success during the Sannin fight, but unlike the time when he got inspired by his memory of Iruka and completed the second step of the Rasengan training, I have not found anything leading to the idea of using the Kage Bunshin as a helping hand for the Rasengan. I understand he was in a desperate situation, but where did the idea come from? Nowhere during the six-day training did he show any signs of such ideas. All the other times he emerged victorious in desperate situations were because of hard work and determination, inspiration, or Kyuubi. The Kage Bunshin shortcut was out of nowhere. If he successfully performed the one-handed Rasengan in that fight and it was a one-time thing before he came up with the shortcut, desperation would be a believable factor. Shortcuts don't come from desperation. They come from inspiration and ideas. So I came up with my own scene of how Natsumi gets the Kage Bunshin shortcut for the Rasengan. If I missed any source that actually points out where Naruto gets the idea of using the Kage Bunshin as a shortcut, please let me know.
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!